What Happens in Morganville
by BeSomebody
Summary: If you asked Claire Danvers to describe herself, she’d tell you that she was just an average girl. Now if you asked Shane Collins the same question his answer would be very different. Things are rarely as they seem in Morganville. Rated M just in case.
1. Chapter 1

A/N :

_I know this is a little cliché but I've just started posting my first fanfiction. I love to write, but I've never actually written anything besides the occasional blogpost, so this is truly my first ever fanfiction. I don't actually have a beta, and English isn't my 1st language, so please bear with me when it comes to grammar and typos._

_I'd love some feedback on what I've written, so please don't be shy to let me know what you think. I welcome critisism too, as long as it's constructive._

* * *

If you asked Claire Danvers to describe herself, she'd tell you that she was an average girl with long brown hair and above average grades. Now if you asked Shane Collins the same question, he'd tell you Claire was the most infuriating girl he'd ever laid eyes on, though at the same time the most beautiful, intriguing, perfect girl he could imagine. Not that you would be able to tell by the way Shane treated Claire. Things are rarely as they seem in Morganville.

_Prologue_

Claire Danvers grew up in Morganville. It was not your average small town – for one you couldn't go out after dark. Well, it wasn't so much a rule as it was a precaution… If you decided to go out during nighttime there was a really big chance you'd never come home again. Why? you ask…. The simple answer to that would be vampires.

Vampires ruled Morganville. Oh, they'd let you believe that people had at least some power, some influence about what happened in the city. Heck, Morganville even had a human mayor and most of the policeforce was human… The simple truth was that it wouldn't matter if you'd crossed the wrong people…. The vampires controlled everything there was to control in Morganville – and if you wanted to leave, you'd have to have special permission to do so… Even then you'd lose your memory about vampires and everything else about Morganville, except maybe vague memories.

Why is this important you ask…. Well, this is a story about a girl who grew up in Morganville, got to move away and then came back. Not many people who moved away from Morganville came back.

Chapter 1  
_Claire POV_

I was packing up my things. I'd been living in L.A. with my parents for about 3 years and now I was going away to college. I remembered little about living in a small town called Morganville prior to moving to L.A, it was all very vague. I wasn't a big city girl, L.A was okay but people at high school had mostly ignored me and I didn't really have any close friends. The only thing I really enjoyed about L.A was the evergrowing, everchanging music scene you'd find there. I was a very hardworking student, which is why I, at the age of 16, was going to college early.

I wasn't really sure how I'd agreed to go to the university in Morganville. It wasn't like I remembered life there. Apparently mom and dad thought that since we'd lived there once, it would be better for me to go to the small college there, instead of going away to one of the major league colleges, which I could've gotten into easily by the way. So here I was, packing to go back to Morganville.

I felt more and more nervous about it, though I didn't really understand why. It wasn't just the normal butterflies because of something new happening, it wasn't even the fact that I'd be living far away from my parent… It was this weird feeling of dread. I tried to calm myself down.  
"It's only college – and even in a town where I've lived most of my life" I muttered to herself. Though it was weird I couldn't really remember my former life there, I thought to myself.

"Mom, I'm all packed" I yelled to mom who was downstairs.  
"Good job sweetie, I'll get your dad to pack the car. You should get some rest, we're leaving early tomorrow" mom yelled back.  
I still couldn't believe that mom and dad would actually drive all the way to Morganville, instead of me just flying out to Texas, but being as nervous as I was, I was really happy about it.

* * *

_A/N : Let me know what you think :) Chapters will be longer in the future._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**_Eve POV_**

Michael was checking the room yet another time. He wanted it to be ready for when Claire arrived. Michael was the owner of the Glass House, where we lived as roommates. Claire would be our 3rd roommate – well more like 4th seeing as Shane spent most of his time in the house too.

"Michael" I called from the living room. Michael made his way down towards me.

"yeah?"

"Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, I know it's Claire but shouldn't we try to convince her and her parents that going to college here isn't a good idea?" I asked nervously.

I really didn't understand why Claire would ever want to go to college in Morganville. Seriously, when she'd left I thought she'd left for good. It certainly seemed like it at the time. I didn't know exactly what had made her leave – and trust me, it was without a doubt Claire who'd wanted to leave and who'd convinced her parents that they should move. It bothered me to no end that I didn't know especially seeing as Claire had been my best friend and we used to tell each other everything. Another thing I'd been thinking about for the last 3 years was the fact that they'd been allowed to leave. It just seemed very strange to me. But even though Claire had left without telling me why, which had made me very angry with her at the time, and I really wanted her and our friendship back, I would much rather she'd stay away. It just wasn't safe in Morganville.

"I know you're concerned Eve. I am too… But I tried to convince them already and they seem dead set on Claire coming here… At least I think she's still protected. I mean, they did get some kind of special permission to leave. Just try to remember that Claire most likely won't remember us, or anything in particular about Morganville" Michael said trying to put me at ease… it wasn't quite working.

That was another weird thing about Morganville. We'd seen it before. The few times someone had left and then returned later, they couldn't really remember anything about the town. Sure they'd remember the layout of the town and in rare cases whether a few people but that was it.

I sighed "I know. It's going to be really hard to pretend not to know your best friend though. Does Shane know she's coming?"

Shane and Claire had a complicated relationship back before Claire and her family left. You never quite knew if they were being friendly towards each other or at each others throats.. it depended on the day. I remembered how once Claire had been really upset she had yelled at Shane that he should stop being such a bipolar bitch. Claire never said words like bitch, so it was a sure sign she was upset. One thing I were sure about though, even back then when Claire was 13 and Shane was 15, Shane would protect Claire with everything he got, so obviously I was a little concerned about how Shane was going to react to the fact that Claire was coming back, like I said it wasn't like Morganville was the safest town to be in.

"I haven't gotten around to tell him yet. I tried the other day, but I feel like he's been avoiding me. I'll try to call him again" Michael said looking a little sheepish.

"Michaaaeel, you know he'll freak if he just sees her all of the sudden. You better get a hold of him – and soon… Claire is due to arrive every minute now" I gave Michael the best glare I could muster, though it wasn't much. I'd always had a soft spot when it came to Michael. I couldn't help but wonder if Claire and I would get the same kind of friendship that we used to have, it would be very nice to have someone to talk to about boys – aka Michael.

Michael muttered a yeah, took his phone and went up the stairs. I assumed he was going to give Shane another call.

**_Michael POV_**

Eves look was a mixture her wanting to kill me and being disappointed in me. I couldn't really blame her, the fact that I hadn't talked to Shane yet was bad. It could even turn out to be of catastrophic proportions. This whole mess was getting on my nerves and I really hated it when Eve looked at me like that….  
I muttered a yeah to Eve and walked up the stairs to get to my room so I could try to call Shane again. I'd really rather not tell him that Claire was coming back over the phone, but I didn't have time to go see him. I tried to wrap my head around the fact that I'd be seeing Claire within an hour. I was happy about being able to spend some time with my "little sister", but I really freaking hated this town and I'd been more than happy to never see Claire again if it meant that she was far away from Morganville.

I let myself fall town onto my bed with a big sigh. Better get this over with. I dialed Shane's number, not really expecting him to answer it. He'd been in a shitty mood the last week or so and I really wasn't kidding when I said that I thought he'd been avoiding me, though I couldn't figure out why. I shouldn't be surprised, Shane had pretty much always been moody. I was just about to hang up when the call got answered  
"Hi Michael, what's up?" It wasn't Shane but his little sister who'd picked up.  
"Hey Alyssa, how are you doing?" I answered.  
"Fine"  
"Is Shane there, I really need to talk to him"  
"No, he isn't home right now and apparently he forgot his phone" well, that sounded like Shane alright.  
"Okay, would you please tell him I need to talk to him as soon as possible. It's really important" I'm sure she could hear the worry in my voice, Alyssa had always been good at reading people.  
"Yeah sure, I'll let him know. See ya"  
"Great, thanks Alyssa, bye". I hung up the phone feeling a little better, if Alyssa said she'd tell him she would.

I went to the bathroom and splashed a little water in my head before I went back downstairs. Eve was pacing in the living room. I went over to her and gave her a friendly hug just to calm her down, to be honest to calm me down too. It was amazing how Eve had the power to calm me down, granted she also had the power to piss me off like no one else had, but Eve was my rock - the one who kept me stable.

As we stood there, I thought I heard a car pull up so I let Eve go.  
"Ready" I asked  
"As ready as I'll ever be" Eve replied trying to look chipper.

_**Shane POV**_

I was sitting on the couch with my little sister Alyssa when my phone started ringing. Michael again. I wasn't really feeling up to talking to him. I couldn't really explain why I'd been avoiding him this week.. I just had this feeling of dread – I wasn't really sure whatever it was he wanted to tell me was a good thing.

"Alyssa, would you mind answering my phone and telling Michael that I went out and left it at home?" I looked at Alyssa while I asked her. Sure, dodging Michael was a shit move, but if he thought I'd forgotten my cell at home, I'd be able to avoid him the rest of the day. Alyssa looked at me like I was crazy, but she adored her big bro, so she answered the phone.

"Hi Michael, what's up?....Fine…. No, he isn't home right now and apparently he forgot his phone…. Yeah sure, I'll let him know. See ya" Alyssa was doing a real good job at pretending I wasn't there. Dammit, I thought, she'd be a really good actress. Not that that would happen in this shithole of a town. Alyssa looked at me with raised eyebrows.  
"Care to tell me what that was about? Michael seemed really anxious to talk to you"  
"yeah, well.. I'm not the mood right now" I looked at the tv.  
"I really think you ought to call him back, or maybe go see him" Alyssa was trying to make me feel guilty, heck it was working.  
"Right… I guess I should go over there and see what all the fuss is about. I'd better go now before it gets dark".

I walked over to the Glass house, it wasn't like anywhere in Morganville was that far from… well.. anything. When I got there, there was an extra car in the driveway. Weird, I didn't recognize it, but seeing as I didn't know all cars in Morganville – I mean, Morganville was small but not THAT small – I didn't really think more off it. I went to the front door and opened it with my key. Michael had decided a while back that seeing as I spent most of my time at the Glass house anyway, I might as well have a key, hell I even had my own room there even though I still technically lived with my parents.

I could hear people talking and besides Eve and Michael, this one voice sounded really familiar. I tried to think of where I'd heard it before. It was probably just someone we used to go to school with. As I stepped into the living room and the people came into view, I tried to wrap my head around what was going on. In front of me was Michael, Eve, two adults and a brown haired girl.

I could only see the back of the girl, but she looked pretty cute.  
"Hi" I said while looking at Michael and Eve, the sound causing them to look at me. Eve looked really shocked and Michael just gaped at me. That's when the girl turned around……..  
NO. It couldn't be. It felt like my heart stopped beating and now I was the one to stand there with my mouth open while looking the girl straight in the eyes.  
CLAIRE!

* * *

_A/N : Let me know what you think, I'd love some feedback - good or bad as long as it's constructive :)_


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N : Ooops. I forgot the disclaimer in the previous chapters :O If there's any doubt - Rachel Caine owns, I just play._  
_I'm on twitter if you care to follow.. I'll try to post teasers and other goodies there ;) Twitter name : BeSomebody82 - you can find the link on my profile :)_

* * *

Chapter 3

**_Shane POV_**

I was looking straight into a pair of big brown eyes. My heart was beating way too fucking fast, my palms were sweating and my mind was racing with a thousand thoughts a minute. What. The. Fuck. This couldn't be happening. Michael would've told me. No. No. What? No. It couldn't be…. Claire had left Morganville, it couldn't be her. Yet there was no doubt about it, the girl in front of me looked unmistakably like Claire – as cheesy as it may sound, I felt it deep down in my very fucking soul that this was Claire. She'd come back to me. No wait, what the fuck was I saying. I'd had to stop those stupid ass thoughts. My thoughts made a flashback to an image of Claire on a swing when she was 8, switching to Claire gossiping with Eve at the age of 12 only to go back to Claire giving me a huge smile when she was 8, then onto Claire yelling at me and telling me she was leaving Morganville. FUCK. I really needed to get some control over my mind.

I finally got my act together and noticed Claire standing right in front of me saying something. What was she saying? Oh, she was telling me her name. Great, just great. I fucking knew her name, no need for her to tell me like she didn't fucking know me. I was at a loss of what to say, so I ended up just mumbling something along the lines of hi and my name. I don't fucking know what I said, I was pissed. What I did know was that I need to talk to Michael and it had to be right now!

**_Claire POV_**

After several days of driving, we were pulling in to a driveway in Morganville. It was funny, I knew that I'd lived in this town most of my life, and while I remembered the buildings, I couldn't for the life of me remember any people. I couldn't help but wonder how that could be. It would be a little awkward if I ran into someone I was supposed to know. I didn't have long to ponder about this, seeing as the car had pulled into a full stop. The house was a little weird, it was a mansion that looked like a mix between Gone With the Wind and The Munsters. I wondered how my parents had found out about the free room in this house, but I didn't have time to ask before my dad started carrying my bags toward the front door.

As soon as my dad had pushed the doorbell, the door was opened by a young man. What a gorgeous guy. He was tall with blond hair cut in uneven layers and beautiful blue eyes. Even though I could see how great the guys looked, I didn't feel terribly attracted to him… He seemed more like the big brother kind of guy.  
While I'd been busy studying the guy, my dad had greeted him and stepped inside.  
"Hi, I'm Michael. Welcome to Morganville, please come inside" the guy said. Michael huh? Well, even though he hadn't said anything special, I felt strangely at ease just by hearing his voice.

As soon as we entered the living room I saw a girl. My eyes became wide, even though I tried to hide it right away. This girl was definitely goth. She didn't scare me in any way, but she had the dyed-black, shag-cut hair, heavy mascara and eyeliner, pale make-up, a black pleated mini-skirt and a t-shirt with a whole lot of skulls on it. She came towards me with a huge friendly smile that reached all the way to her eyes.  
"Hi Claire, I'm Eve.... I'm really happy you're here. Did you find it alright?" Eve said in a chipper voice. Almost too chipper.  
"Hi, thank you. Yeah, we found it easy enough.. or.. well my dad did" I answered Eve

Both Eve and Michael looked a little older than me, around 18 or 19 I guessed. I could hear my dad talking to Michael about keeping me safe and general embarrassing parent stuff. Ugh, I wished dad would just stop already. Eve asked me if I wanted to see my room and started to lead the way up the stairs. After we went down the hallway, where Eve pointed out : Extra bedroom, Michael's room which was a double-sized room with 2 doors, bathroom, Eve's room… we came to the last room, which would be mine. It was huuuuge. No seriously… I don't know what I'd imagined, seeing as this was a mansion after all, but I was definitely pleasantly surprised. No small dorm room for me. Yay.  
While my mom and Eve was talking I took in the room. It was situated in a corner of the house, which meant it had more windows. 3 windows made the room seem nice and bright. There was a full-sized bed in dark wood, a closet and a tv. Hell yeah, I loved this room already.

After carrying all my stuff, which wasn't much just some clothes, some books and a laptop, we were all in the living room talking. Michael and Eve really seemed like nice easygoing people, and that somehow made me feel like I was home, even if I'd just moved in. Suddenly I heard another voice behind me, I turned around and saw a guy around the same age as Eve and Michael stand behind me. I let my eyes wonder before catching eye contact with him. Tall, really nice body, not too muscular but definitely fit, brown hair cut in a hairstyle much like Michael's with uneven layers and the most piercing blue eyes I'd ever seen. I couldn't recall ever having seen this guy, but my body was in shock and it felt like I'd met him before.

No one was saying anything and when I looked over at Michael and Eve they looked like they wanted to hide. That was weird. Seriously, why wasn't anyone introducing me to this guy?  
I walked towards him, and stretched out my hand to greet him.  
"Hi, I'm Claire" I didn't get an answer straight away. The guy seemed like he was 1000 miles away, then suddenly he shook his head and seemed to come to.  
"Ummm, hi. I'm Shane, nice to meet you". It didn't sound like he thought it was nice to meet me – in fact it sounded very much like he was mad at me.  
"Michael can I talk to you for a second" he mumbled angrily, it didn't come out like a question at all. Rude - he didn't even shake my hand.

Michael seemed to pull out of whatever daze he was in and walked towards the stairs without saying a word. Eve just looked worried and my parents looked confused. I'm sure I did as well. I didn't know what to make of it all. I really didn't think I'd done anything to this guy, but he still seemed angry with me but what did I know, maybe he'd just been angry about something else. I had a weird feeling in my chest. It just felt like somehow I knew this guy.

Eve seemed at a loss about what to say and everyone was just quiet for a while. Eve suddenly seemed to remember that we were there and started talking 100 miles an hour. I didn't even catch all of it, but it was something about Shane and hooking up? Um hello, parents present. I got a weird feeling in my stomach when I thought about Shane hooking up with random girls. Seriously? I hadn't even known the guy for more than 5 minutes, I shouldn't care whether or not he was dating. Somehow I did anyway.

**_Eve POV_**

I looked around. Michael and Shane was walking up the stairs, Claire's parents was looking really confused and Claire just stod there looking after Shane and Michael with an expression I couldn't read. She couldn't be remembering him, could she? No, she didn't seem to remember Michael and I and we'd been just as good friends with Claire as Shane had, if not better. On the other hand, Claire and Shane did have this weird connection even back then. I didn't know what to make of the situation, I could just hope that Shane and Michael wouldn't be too loud, I knew for sure they would be arguing.

Crap, crap, crap. I really needed to say something, to lighten the mood somehow. But how?  
"That's Shane, he kinda lives here. Well, actually he lives at home with his parents, but he stays over here so much he actually have the spare bedroom as his own… Whenever he's going out on dates, hook-ups or whatever, he usually comes over here afterwards so his parents don't find out"  
Oh crap, that wasn't the right thing to say… Mentioning lying to parents and hooking up with girls? Yeah, smart move Eve. Claire's parents looked a little anxious and Claire just looked at me with wide eyes, it almost looked like she was going to cry. Did I say crap already?

* * *

_A/N : This is pretty much caught up with what I'd written so far, so the next update probably won't come as quick.  
I do however have the day off tomorrow, so I'll try to get something written. Shane isn't playing nice tho, he's mad at me for bringing Claire back to Morganville and not giving him any notice - I keep telling him he should've listened to Michael instead of avoiding him... What can I say, Shane is a moody bastard ;)  
As always, let me know your thoughts :)_


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N : Sorry for the delay. I have a million excuses, but what's most important is that the chapter is up now – and I'm more than half done with both chapter 5 and 6  
btw… I'm on twitter too – BeSomebody82  
As always, I don't own._

* * *

_**Day by day  
You wipe the smile off your face  
The ones you love  
Are vanishing without a trace  
So you run and hide  
Pretending you don't want to cry  
But it's not too late  
To get back on the right side of the hourglass**_

_Taylor Locke & the Roughs - Hourglass_

Chapter 4

_**Shane POV**_

Michael followed me up the stairs. My body was almost shaking with repressed anger. I allowed myself another glance at Claire. She had a confused look on her face, not that I could blame her, here I was practically running away from her. Damn, she'd grown out in all the right places. No, those kinds of thoughts really shouldn't be running through my head, especially not now. Focus Shane, focus. I turned left in to Michael's room.  
"FUCK, MICHEAL" it just came out of my mouth before I had time to think. I needed to calm myself before I said anything else, so I took a minute to take in the familiar surroundings. I'd been to this room a million times before, and it looked just the same. A few guitars hanging on the wall, king size bed, dark blue walls… Yup, nothing new to take my mind off Claire. What was she doing back? To be honest I didn't think I'd ever see her again, and we hadn't exactly parted on the best terms.

_**Michael POV**_

I followed Shane up the stairs catching him stealing glances at Claire. No surprise there. When we walked into my room, I expected him to go off on me straight away, but all he said was "FUCK, MICHAEL" and then he seemed completely lost in his own thoughts. Weird, the Shane I knew usually spoke before thinking – so I didn't quite know how to handle his silence. He looked rigid though… Fists closed into tight knots while his body was kind of shaking. Yeah, not relaxed at all.  
I knew all along that Shane wouldn't react well, but I had seriously imagined him being a lot more verbal, I just couldn't wrap my head around it. I decided to just wait it out and see what happened, since I didn't really know what to say anyway.  
Suddenly Shane seemed to pull out of his daze. "Fuck dude, you gotta enlighten me here. What's going on?" Shane finally said while sitting down on my bed.  
"Shane, I've been trying to tell you for days, but it seemed like you were avoiding me and I never to a chance to tell you. What's up with that by the way?" Even though I knew it was a bad way Shane had found out, I couldn't help but sound a little dignified. I mean, I had tried to talk to him earlier. "I even tried calling you earlier, but Alyssa answered your phone".  
"Whatever, just tell me why the fuck Claire is back" Shane tried to keep his cool, but his voice was wavering and his hands fidgeting with the bed sheets on both sides of his body.

_**Shane POV**_

My mind was running a thousand miles per hour when I got home. This whole story Michael told me about Claire's parents wanting her to go to school in a place she knew just sounded weird to me – especially if none of them could remember much about Morganville.

I'd missed Claire so terribly much the last few years, not that I'd ever admit it to my friends although I suspected they knew. Actually we'd pretty much been avoiding the whole subject "Claire".  
Claire had been my first kiss – the best kiss I'd ever had, even if it'd been the most innocent one too.

_--Flashback--_

We'd been to Claire's birthday party when she turned 13, the last one she'd celebrated in Morganville before leaving for L.A – back before Eve went all goth and I became a brooding manwhore. We weren't that many people – Michael, Eve, Alyssa, me and a few people from Claire's year. I was 14 soon to turn 15 and my hormones were racing, but somehow I'd never acted on them. Sure, I'd look at girls and make crude comments like all the other guys, but I was pretty content hanging out with Eve, Michael, Alyssa and Claire. Michael and I were sitting in the living room watching tv before the party started, while Eve, Alyssa and Claire was upstairs getting ready. It took them forever and I said to Michael "dude, why did we agree to come over early with Alyssa, when we're just stuck down here watching tv anyway? We could've just stayed home and played videogames until the rest of the guests come". Michael had looked at me like I was stupid, before replying "you know why…… Besides, I wasn't the one who told Alyssa that we'd go with her". Funny thing is that Michael was right, when Alyssa had asked us if we wanted to go early, I had agreed within seconds. I hadn't really thought much about it, seeing as we always hung out with the girls, but the way Michael said it made it sound like I had a motive, which I didn't realize was true until later on.  
I felt restless and got up to go to the bathroom. Claire's mom was in the downstairs bathroom, so I had to go upstairs. Just as I passed Claire's bedroom on the way to the bathroom I heard the girls talk. I instantly paused.

"So Claire, are you excited that Todd's gonna be here?" I heard Alyssa say. What… the… fuck… Todd? I tried to remember who exactly Todd was, but came up blank.  
"Alyssaaaaaa, please. I don't understand why you're so set on setting me up with Todd. I mean, he's nice and all but I'm totally not into him" I heard Claire reply.  
My whole body relaxed, I hadn't even noticed how tense I'd become. I knew I shouldn't eavesdrop, but the door was cracked open and I could see Claire in front of the mirror, tugging her hair behind her ear. Dammit she looked pretty. Todd, Todd, Todd…. I was still trying to figure out who exactly Todd was.  
Eve decided to join the conversation "but I thought you said it'd be nice to get your first kiss today? "  
What the heck kind of conversation did they have before I'd gotten there? I listened closely for Claire's answer.  
"Oh.. yeah, but I don't really want Todd to be my first kiss" There was a slight pause in the conversation. Claire was putting on lip gloss but I couldn't see what my sister or Eve was doing.  
Suddenly Alyssa squeled. I'm not kidding, she actually squeled and I unwillingly took a step back. "I know who you want to be your first kiss – it's…". Suddenly the door opened and Alyssa was standing right in front of me. I wasn't expecting that and became flustered. "Your mom's using the downstairs bathroom so I had to come up to use the one up here" I blurted out while catching eyecontact with Claire. The cutest crimson red color flushed to her face.  
"Yeah, well this isn't the bathroom, so move along dude" Eve said in a snide tone.  
As I went to the bathroom, I couldn't help but feel a little annoyed that I hadn't gotten to hear who Claire wanted to be her first kiss. I didn't like the thought about her kissing some random guy. Heck, I didn't like the thought about her kissing any guy. Once I'd finished and gotten downstairs, the girls and the rest of the guests were there.

Claire didn't exactly seem to avoid me, but she definitely wasn't coming over to talk to me either. After we'd had cake people just hung around, listening to music and talking. I'd finally seen who Todd was, he was this little blonde dweeb from Claire's year – he'd definitely be all work for my Claire. I looked for Claire, she was dancing with Eve and they were both laughing. I wondered when I'd be able to give her the present I'd bought her. I hadn't told anyone I'd bought her an extra gift, seeing as I'd also been included in the gift Michael, Eve and Alyssa gave her. When I finally saw Claire leave Eve and go upstairs I followed her.

"Claire" I called out. "Yeah?" it came from her bedroom. I sneaked a look before actually entering the room, just to make sure it was okay to enter. Claire stood by her dresser applying lip gloss and looking up at me with her big brown eyes. I don't know what came over me, except the fact that I didn't want some other guy to be her first kiss. I took the last few steps towards Claire purposely and kissed her. It wasn't a wild passionate kiss, but it was sweet and heartfelt – and most important Claire didn't pull away. I enjoyed the way her lips felt against mine. I ended the kiss, gave her the present with the words "Happy Birthday Claire" and walked back downstairs.

* * *

_A/N : So what do you think Shane bought Claire??_

_I really hope it won't take this long to get the next chapter up. The thing is that the chapters sometimes mess with me, this wasn't even supposed to be chapter 4 – but it insisted ;) Shane is still not letting me know everything, but I think he's starting to open up a bit more.  
The new album "Grain and Grape" from Taylor Locke & the Roughs really helped me write this chapter. Check them out on www(dot)tlatr(dot)com_


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N : I don't know anything.  
Question. Do you prefer just one POV per chapter, or do you like it when there's mulitple POV's?_

* * *

Chapter 5

_**Claire POV**_

I was sitting on my bed absently playing with my bracelet. My mind was racing trying to process all the thoughts running through my head. The last few days in Morganville had gone by so fast and I wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

My parents had left the Glass House pretty soon after the, in lack of better words, disaster. They'd wanted to start their way home right away and then sleep at a motel on the road. Don't ask me why they'd drive for days just to drop me off, I had expected them to at least stay the night. Whatever, it's not like I was on my own. Eve seemed to go off about anything and everything both before and after my parents left. I hadn't really been able to deal with anymore right then, so I told Eve I was going to my room to unpack.  
I tiptoed my way past Michael's doors – I was in no mood to meet Moody Bastard on my way to my room. Okay, I really didn't have any right to call that guy Shane names, maybe he wasn't so bad once you got to know him. Still, he had been a very moody bastard so far.  
I'd gotten into my room without running into Michael or Shane and I collapsed on my bed. After about 5 minutes I could hear the guys leave Michael's room and walk down the stairs. I'd instantly relaxed. Funny, I hadn't even been aware that I'd been so tense. I didn't feel like running into Shane again that day, so I did what I'd told Eve I'd do – unpacked my things. Once that was done I went downstairs again, where I found Eve and Michael in the living room talking. As soon as they noticed me coming they stopped their conversation, almost like they didn't want me to hear what they were talking about.

"Claire, did you finish unpacking?" Eve asked me. "Yeah, I didn't have that much stuff, so it didn't take too long" I answered looking from Eve to Michael. "Awesome, I was just about to make some dinner, you should help me and we can talk". I looked from Eve to Michael when he actually snorted at what Eve'd just said. "Ummm yeah right Eve… Let's just say you try to cook", Eve gave him a glare and just told him to shut it.

I'd followed Eve into the kitchen where she told me that Michael might have a point, but that she was more than capable to boil some pasta and make some meat sauce. While she started cooking she told me a bit about the house rules. There wasn't a lot, but basically we'd have to take turns cooking and cleaning – and always tell each other where we were going. I found that a bit strange actually, I mean isn't the point of moving away from your parents to at least partially get more freedom? Anyway, we'd fallen into easy conversation, mostly about my life in L.A, when Eve suddenly said "Listen Claire, I'm sorry about Shane earlier. He was just having a bad day, I swear he's not normally like that…… Well, mostly not, he can be a moody ass once in a while". I'd been taken by surprise and didn't form an answer before Eve had left the kitchen carrying the food into the living room.

That was 3 days ago and while those days hadn't been super busy – really, I'd only went to see Claire at that Coffee shop, Common Grounds, she worked at. Her boss Oliver came off as a really nice guy, he'd been really friendly towards me, giving me free drinks – in a non-creepy way - and chatting with me about L.A. I'd also talked a lot to this guy Sam. Sam was really pretty, if you're allowed to call a guy pretty….. He had soft, short red hair and really pale with the cutest freckles. Sam came off as being a bit lonely, and he seemed to enjoy our conversations as much as me. The coffee shop had easily become one of my favorite spots to hang out.

There was just one thing that puzzled me - How could I have lived in Morganville my entire life, except the last 3 years, and still not know anyone I'd met here the last 3 days? I mean, it didn't seem possible that there was no one in this town that I knew or who knew me. Seriously, it's not like the entire town could've moved out and new people moved in, not in just 3 short years. Yet I didn't recognize anyone and no one had come up to me to say hi or anything.

I mulled over my relationship with Eve and Michael. It was nice how we appeared to get along well together, almost as if we'd known each other forever. I'd asked Eve about it - she'd only give me vague answers though… "I've seen you around" and then she'd just change the subject to something completely different. At first I'd just shrugged and let it go, but sometimes Eve would know or say something about me that I couldn't really understand how she'd know, so it was really starting to get on my nerves that she would change the subject.

I sighed and got of my bed to go use the bathroom to get ready for bed. I was exhausted and the next day would be my first day of school.

------

_**Alyssa POV**_

I was upstairs, trying to figure out what to wear. Boy was I anxious to get out of the house. The last few days you really didn't want to be around Shane, he'd been all brooding and dark all the time – even more so than usual. Shane and I usually hung out a lot, seeing as I was only a year younger than Shane, but right now I was just trying to stay as far away from him as I possibly could.  
I tried on my new blue skirt. I'd fallen in love with it at the first sight.. It was a navy blue skirt that came down to just over my knees with white stitching. I looked in the mirror. Yeah, the skirt looked really good. I'd paired it off with a regular white t-shirt with a v-neck and the words "WARRIOR QUEEN – BEWARE". One thing you got to know about me.. I really like fashion, but not too much of this fancy smancy stuff.. About the writing, well… It was a more or less subtle way of letting the vamps know that I'd fight back if they ever tried anything. Not that I could actually do them any harm, but dammit I wouldn't go down without a fight. Done and done.

I was officially ready for my first day. I could hear Shane downstairs, and in an effort to avoid any run-ins with him, I turned on my ipod and started to walk down the stairs. Shane was in the kitchen and I did my best "sneak past parents" routine in the living room. YES… I was out of the front door without running into Shane, SCORE. Seriously, I'd have nothing put a damper on my mood today – we have enough shitty days in Morganville.

_**Claire POV**_

I woke up bright and early around 5am and couldn't seem to go back to sleep. I eventually decided to just get up and get ready. Eve had the morning shift at the coffee shop that morning, so I figured I'd catch a ride from her and get a cup of coffee before school.  
After getting ready and applying my lip gloss, I went down to the living room to find Eve. I found her with a big mug of coffee on the couch.  
"You do know that you work in a coffee shop that has the best coffee, right?" I couldn't help but ask.  
"mmmmmmmmm" I guess Eve wasn't really a morning person.  
"Can I get a ride to the coffee shop? Then I'll just walk to school from there".  
"Sure, we leave in 5"  
"Alrighty, I'm ready when you are".  
"ughhhhhh, this is why I mostly work nights, I'm so not a morning person. Okay, okay let's go". Eve got up from the couch, gathered her things and we walked out to her car.  
I sat down with coffee, but neither Sam nor Oliver was there and Eve was busy with the morning rush, so I decided to just walk over to the school right away. It wasn't too far from the coffee shop and Eve'd shown me where it was the day before.I entered the school area and there were lots of people everywhere. I was trying to figure out where I was going when I suddenly heard someone yell out.  
"Oh my god…. CLAIREEEEEEE".

* * *

_A/N : I'd really love to know what you think about the story so far. I know we haven't gotten that far and there's lots to cover, but please let me know if you love, hate, like or dislike it :)_


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: Sorry about the delay. This is the longest chapter yet (still not very long though)._  
_Thanks to everyone who reviewed, it means a lot to me to know what you think_  
_Disclaimer : Rachel Caine owns - oh and btw, who's reading Kiss of Death? I just started it and I'm ½ done with it. Love it!_

* * *

Chapter 6

_**Alyssa POV**_

I made it to school with time to spare, so I sat down on a bench in one of the green areas near the school entrance while listening to my iPod. I looked around, studying the people around me. There was a bunch of people I knew from high school and townies I'd seen around. I wasn't the world's most popular girl, but I wasn't disliked in any way, which is probably one of the reasons why Monica Morell actually acknowledged me and gave me a nod as she was walking by with her group of minions. Ugh, I hated that girl so much you wouldn't even believe it. I'm sure she was mostly being nice towards me in an attempt to get Shane's attention, which wasn't happening by the way. He'd gone down that patch once – luckily not for long. God, I still couldn't believe he actually went out with her. Not only had she been after Shane since forever, she'd actually stolen my then boyfriend, Chris, about two years ago – only to toss him away no more than a week later. Stupid bitch. Monica was and had always been daddy's little rich spoiled girl.

Why hadn't I left this place to go to College? Oh, right. I didn't want to leave my family and friends. Shane had always quite a temper, but it'd definitely gotten worse the last few years – and quite frankly I didn't wanna go away to College just to come back to a dead brother… whether it'd be one kind of dead or the other.

I got up from my comfy little spot while looking around for Monica. No way in hell I was going to bump into her, so I had to take my precautions. The place was starting to get crowded, so it took me a while to spot her – and when I finally did, I saw someone familiar near her. My heart started beating really fast and I felt like I'd been nailed to the ground. Then a big smile broke out all over my face…. only to fade again just as quickly.

_**Claire POV**_

"Oh my god…. CLAIREEEEEEE".

I turned around to face the person. A model like girl stood before me. She could've been taken straight out of a Victoria's Secret catalogue. Long shiny black hair that was shimmering in the light, which made the blue eyes stand out. If I'd been gay and into pretty faces, this would pretty much be a dream girl. I didn't recognize the person at all, but she didn't seem happy that I just stood there frozen.  
"omg, Claire… it's been so long. How have you been? What are you doing here?" Though the words that came out of her mouth sounded friendly enough, there was something about her voice that made it sound like she wasn't being sincere at all – and her eyes wasn't the slightest bit friend. I got goosebumps all over my body.  
"Um, I'm sorry, do I know you?" I finally managed to get across my lips.  
"Silly girl, it's me.. Monica, Monica Morell".  
Um, okay that didn't help me out at all. I wasn't any closer to figuring out who this 'Monica' chick was. I certainly wasn't getting a good vibe from her. Funny, I'd never really been a person who'd gotten 'vibes' from people, but here it seemed to happen all the time. I was starting to think I might be going a little insane – I'd never really believed in all this supernatural stuff.  
"I'm really sorry, but I don't have a clue who you are"  
"Geeze, just because you've been gone a few years, you think you're better than the rest of us" Monica responded in a voice as cold as ice. " I shouldn't be surprised though, you and your friends always thought you were better than the rest of us…"  
"MONICA" while Monica had been ranting another girl had come over . She didn't seem like the rest of the girls hanging around Monica.  
"Gary just asked for you. I think he went inside to look for you" the girl continued. Monica seemed to evaluate her options for a moment, before she told her gang "let's go". I instantly relaxed, I didn't know what the deal was with this girl. I mean, she obviously knew me, so shouldn't I know her? I was grateful for the distraction the other girl came up with. I took a moment to look at her. She wasn't as beautiful as Monica, she had long brown hair paired with blue eyes. She looked very "girl next door", she seemed like a really nice girl, though her shirt seemed to indicate that she had some spunk.

_**Alyssa POV**_

I lied to Monica. I hadn't talked to Gary at all, but he seemed to be the object of her infatuation these days – aside from Shane of course, but then again, Monica was always obsessed with Shane. I think it was the whole him not wanting anything to do with her thing. So yeah, lied to the bitch, who cares – not me.  
It had taken me a few minutes to get over the shock of seeing Claire. Did Michael and Eve know she was here? And most importantly, did Shane? That sure would explain his brooding the last couple of days. If they knew, why hadn't they told me? I'd missed Claire just as much as they had.  
"Hi, I'm Claire" Claire smiled at me.  
I was at a loss for what to do. Obviously I'd figured out something was wrong when I could see Monica become all bitchy, but I hadn't been able to make out the words except the very end, so I really wasn't expecting that Claire wouldn't remember me. Was it just a case of her not remembering me because it'd been a few years, or was something else going on? I was trying to remember if I knew of any other people who'd left Morganville and came back. I drew up a blank, so I decided to just go with the flow until I had a chance to talk to Michael, Eve and Shane.  
"Hi Claire, I'm Alyssa. Sorry about Monica, she can be a real bitch at times….. Actually most of the time". That got Claire to giggle.  
"Thanks for helping me out. Is she a friend of yours?" Claire asked looking a little nervous.  
"Hell NO, she's the queen bee and she thinks the rest of us are just around to do her every bidding. I won't stand for that and she knows it. But for some reason she seems to tolerate me."  
"Oh, thank god…. Sorry, it's just that you seem like a really nice person, and… ummm… it doesn't seem like Monica and I will be besties anytime soon"  
"Yeah she's really not. I'd stay clear of her for a while if I was you" I told Claire truthfully.

We talked for a while before heading into class. Turned out we had a few classes together, which I was really happy about. Claire might not recognize me, but it was starting to feel a little like old times.

_**Claire POV**_

All in all my first day in at the college had been really good. Of course the whole Monica thing sucked, but that wasn't what was on my mind. Instead I focused on the fact that I seemed to have gotten a new friend. Like with Michael and Eve, I just felt completely at ease with Alyssa, like we were old friends or something. I'd been really happy when I found out that we even had classes together. Alyssa had invited me over to her place this weekend, obviously there was still most of the week left but I was excited.

_-Later-_

_**EVE POV**_

Common Grounds was insanely busy and I was running all over the place, when I saw Alyssa come in. OH CRAP… Did anyone tell her that Claire was back? From the look on her face it didn't seem like it, and I was sure she was about to have it with me. Oh oh. I'm sure I looked like a deer caught in the headlights – and let me just tell you, that isn't a look I sport every often. Alyssa looked straight at me and sent me the best of her glares before facial expression softened a tiny bit.  
"Can you wait for things to quiet down? Then I'll come talk to you" I yelled over the noise to Alyssa. She gave me a nod and found an empty chair.  
Seriously, I couldn't believe how I hadn't thought about telling Alyssa about Claire. Sure, we'd all been busy recently, but Alyssa had been just as good friends with Claire as the rest of us. To be honest, at times they'd seemed to be closer than I was with any of them, and I'd sometimes felt a little left out. Not that I ever showed that and I'm pretty sure they'd never picked up on it - cause I'm sure as hell that they'd have tried to convince me otherwise. Fucking hell. I felt really bad now.

It took a good half hour before the rush slowed down. I told Dave I was gonna take a break, grabbed an iced tea for both Alyssa and I and then went to join her.  
"Sorry you had to wait so long, like you could see it was really busy. Soooo…. What's up?" I figured I'd better try the innocent approach. I could see right away that wouldn't work. Crap.  
"First, that's okay. I wouldn't want people to start a riot because they'd have to wait too long for their coffee…. Second! BULLSHIT!!! I'm pretty sure you have an idea about what's up. What the hell Eve? What is going on, why haven't you told me Claire was back?" Alyssa was furious  
"I…."  
"Don't even start to pretend you don't know anything about it, I can tell just by looking at you that you know what's up!!! So spill it!" Crap, Alyssa rarely got upset, but when she did it was serious.  
"Okay, first off I'm REALLY sorry I haven't told you. We've just all been so busy and honestly it didn't even cross my mind that you didn't know. Michael and I were really anxious about breaking the news to Shane, and I guess we focused so much on that, that we didn't even think about you – and for that I owe you a huge apology." I gave Alyssa one of my "I'm so sorry" smiles and while she still looked pissed, she seemed to calm down a bit. I continued.  
"To be honest I don't really know too much about why Claire is here. Her parents contacted Michael because of the ad for a roommate and they just told him that their daughter was going to the university here, and they inquired about the room. Obviously Michael knew who they were, and if Claire was coming back what better place for her to stay?" I was starting to ramble, so I took a deep breath, looking for a reaction from Alyssa. Right now she was just staring at me and that's what made me continue.  
"Al, you know we love you, right? I'd never purposefully keep something like this from you – I honestly just hadn't thought about it. Which reminds me, how DID you find out?" I finished, waiting for Alyssa to answer.  
"Well…." Alyssa started telling me about the day she'd had with the run in with Monica and hanging out with Claire.

_**Alyssa POV**_

I was still a little pissed, but I told Eve about my day with Claire. Then I asked her something that'd puzzled me the entire day.  
"I just don't understand why she doesn't remember me? Doesn't she remember you or Michael either?"  
Eve seemed to pause before answering that.  
"I'm not really sure how it works. The few people I've noticed have come back seemed to have the same issue. I was sure that it stayed that way, but I've been thinking a lot about it and to be honest, I never really knew any of those people and I didn't pay attention to them, so I'm not really sure how this all plays out."  
She seemed to contemplate this before continuing.  
"Claire hasn't really been back that long. She hasn't even been here a week, but I swear there's time when I think she's remembering things. You should've seen her when she first met Shane. She had this look of complete confusion on her face…. Then again that could be because Shane was being an ass as usual."  
"HEY, that's my brother you're talking about!" I burst out. Not that I really blamed her, Shane really could be a complete ass when he wanted to be – hell, even when he didn't want to be.  
"But yeah, what happened? Shane's been a brooding bastard all week. I've been going out of my way to avoid him, so I haven't really found out why – but it finally clicked today when I saw Claire. So?" I looked at Eve expectantly.  
"Well, the other day when Michael called and you answered the phone?"  
"Yeah?"  
"That was the day Claire arrived. Michael wanted to talk to Shane before she came, but that didn't work out, seeing as Shane showed up just shortly after Claire and her parents did".  
"Oh god, that couldn't have gone well?"  
"Nah, Shane was seriously being an ass, dragging Michael upstairs just as Claire had introduced herself. They didn't see each other after that, Claire had already gone to her room when Shane left. We haven't seen Shane at the house since".  
"I can't believe he hasn't said anything to me. Dammit, she's my friend too. I gotta talk to him soon…. But maybe I'll just let him sweat it out first. I've invited Claire over this weekend, and I have a feeling he might wanna avoid her, but I'm not gonna let him. Right? They should hang out, right? I mean, they used to be so good friends too." I paused.  
"How are you going about this whole knowing Claire but pretending not to? I mean, I had a really hard time with that today – and that was just one day. Besides, who says we can't tell her?"  
"I KNOW! It's been really hard. I love this girl so much, she's one of my best friends and I can't even let her know. I'm not really sure if we can tell her or not, but I'm not sure it'd be a good idea? I mean, that would make her really confused, and who knows how she'd react to that kind of news? Maybe we should just play it by ear for now, hope she remembers and that we don't slip until she does?" Eve seemed like she'd been giving it a lot of thought, and I couldn't really disagree with her. If I didn't remember and someone told me all this stuff would I even believe it?

* * *

_A/N : I know, I know... no Shane. I promise he'll be back in the next chapter.... which hopefully won't take as long as this one :) _  
_Leave me a note to tell me what you think? Thanks for reading :) _


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N : Okay, sorry about the slight delay. I'd promised a few people to have this up by Sunday.  
Unfortunately I had a couple of nights with more tossing and turning than actual sleep, which resualted in me walking around like a zombie.  
On the positive side, this is the longest chapter yet - AND it's only been 1½ week since I last updated. Hope you enjoy.  
Let me know what you think? Either in a review or on twitter (screenname BeSomebody82)  
Disclaimer : Rachel Caine owns._

* * *

**_Things have changed for me. But that's okay, I feel the same._**

* * *

Chapter 7

_**Claire POV**_

My alarms clock went off at 9am. Maybe not early for some, but I love to sleep in during the weekend. Alas I had plans with Alyssa, plans that I was really looking forward to. When she'd first extended the invitation from just Saturday to a sleepover because her parents wouldn't be home, I'd been a little hesitant. Not about visiting Alyssa, but about sleeping over. I mean, I'd just moved back to Morganville, shouldn't I stay at the Glass House hanging out with my new roomies? But then Eve had heard about the plans and it turned out that she and Alyssa was really good friends – so now it would be the three of us. Eve had to work until 9pm, but she'd come over afterwards.

I got myself out of bed and into the shower. Mmmm, a hot shower was just what I'd needed. I was slowly waking up as I walked back into my room. I took a quick look at my clothes before I settled on a pair of washed out skinny jeans and a navy blue shirt. Before I left I put on my favorite silver necklace with the butterfly pendant. We'd decided to make some brunch at Alyssa's place, so I didn't have to worry about getting something to eat before I left.

As I followed the instruction I'd gotten to Alyssa's house, I looked around at the people of Morganville. This town really puzzled me. Didn't you usually say that small town people were the friendliest kind? And that everything was everyone's business? Well, that sure didn't seem to be the case here. The few people I saw was just minding their own business while looking down into the ground. If I'd just seen one person like that, I wouldn't have thought more about it, but the fact that everyone seemed to be that way was just weird. Before I could ponder more about this I'd made it to Alyssa's house.

_**Shane POV**_

It was Saturday just before noon and I was in the kitchen making myself some breakfast. Yeah, I like to sleep in, so what. At least my parents weren't home. I didn't know what Alyssa was up to, she'd acting so sneaky the last few days. I had a sneaky suspicions that she knew that Claire was back, but neither of us had brought it up. I'd rather not deal with that hurdle until I had to.  
Alyssa came brushing into the kitchen and started pulling out pots and pans and put a stop to my attempt to get some breakfast. What the fuck. My sister rarely cooks – and what the hell would she be cooking at this time of the day?  
"Um Al, what the fuck are you doing?"  
"Good morning to you too? Yes, thank you. I slept really well, thank you for asking" she replied in her 'sweet girl' voice. Dammit. I didn't know what was going on, but I did know that it was going to suck ass. Her avoiding my questions was never a good sign. I never got to respond back to Alyssa before the doorbell rang.  
"Oh Shane, could you get that for me, please?" I just stared at her.  
"Why should I? You get it" Alyssa just rolled her eyes at me, she was used to this.  
"Pretty pretty please Shane… Come on, I'm busy here" I caved. I was curious to see who was coming over anyway. Al did hang out with a lot of people, she was in no way unpopular, but she rarely had people over at our house.

I went out to the door, hoping it wouldn't be one of the damn bloodsuckers. But why the hell would it be? I hadn't gotten in to any trouble recently. Besides, Alyssa seemed to be expecting whomever it was.  
The doorbell rang again before I got there. I was starting to get a bit annoyed, so I roughly opened the door when I got to it. Good thing my mom wasn't home, she'd kick my ass for the way I was behaving. Having thrown the door open, I found myself standing face to face with Claire. OH MY FUCKING GOD.

Claire was probably the last person I'd been expecting. Holy shit. I was dumbstruck, firmly planted at the exact spot I was when I'd opened the door. I'm somewhat sure my mouth was hanging down by my knees.  
Claire had kinda the same stunned expression on her face. Or so I assumed, seeing as I really didn't have any clue as to how I looked. However, Claire seemed to pull herself together faster than I did.  
"Um, hi. I'm here to see Alyssa. Is she here"  
It took me another couple of second before I was able to speak.  
"Yeah, she's in the kitchen". My mind went fucking blank and I was just staring into Claire's eyes. They were full of expressions I couldn't read. Seemed like I'd always had a problem with reading Claire's emotions.  
"Um, so where's the kitchen" Claire's voice pulled me out of whatever crazy ass place I'd just gone and I realized that I was blocking the door, so she couldn't go find Alyssa.  
"Sorry, it's right through the living room" I answered, while finally pulling away from the door and pointing towards the kitchen.

What the fuck was happening. Why was Claire at my house? Seriously! The big guy upstairs really seemed to be pushing my buttons these days. How the fuck had Alyssa met Claire? I mean, obviously they'd been friends before Claire'd moved away but Alyssa hadn't mentioned Claire at all this passing week. I know I said I had a suspicion that Alyssa knew Claire was back, but one thing was having a suspicion a whole other thing was getting it confirmed – by Claire coming over of all things.

I figured I'd been standing like dumbass at the door long enough. Thank god Claire had gone into the kitchen and didn't see me just stand there like the ass I was.

_**Claire POV**_

The door to Alyssa's house slammed open with brutal force, making me jump a step back as I wasn't expecting that. In the door stood none other than Shane. The guy I'd been trying not to think about ever since I'd gotten back to Morganville. I took a deep breath before asking if Alyssa was there. Shane told me she was in the kitchen, but didn't move so I could get in. I looked up, straight into Shane's eyes. For a minute there I completely lost myself, just swimming in his deep blue eyes, before snapping out of it and realizing that none of us had moved. I felt pretty damn stupid just standing on the doorstep, not being able to get inside, so I can't Shane for directions to the kitchen and he finally moved so I could get inside. I walked past Shane, while trying to ignore the pull I felt towards him.

Alyssa was in the kitchen like Shane had said she'd be. She was busy preparing for our brunch, and she sure had gone all out. No idea how the hell we're going to eat all this.  
"CLAIRE" Alyssa smiled and gave me such a big hug, you'd think we hadn't just seen each other the day before.  
"I've already started brunch"  
"yeah, I see. How on earth do you imagine we'll eat all of this?"  
"Oh, well I thought we'd just save the leftovers and have them for dinner, if that's okay with you?"  
I shrugged, that actually made sense and I didn't mind at all.  
"Sounds like a great idea".

Shane entered the kitchen as we were preparing the final things for brunch. He seemed to be glaring at us, well mostly at me to be true and I just looked down most of the time so my eyes wouldn't shift to look at him all the time. Damn it was hard not to look at him.  
"Oh hi there big bro" Alyssa said coyly  
"Well hallo there lil' sis" Shane retorted  
"So, what's the deal with all this food? You're trying to eat us out of town? Actually I wouldn't mind if that's what you were trying, though I don't think it'll actually do anything" Shane seemed to snicker at something. I didn't understand what the hell he was talking about, but Alyssa seemed to catch on.  
"As if, you know you're going to eat at least half of all this jackass". I wasn't used to the tone these two siblings used with each other – at least I figured they're siblings, seeing as they call each other bro and sis – so I was a little startled, but hell I'd talk to my friends that way, so I guess it wasn't really a big deal.  
"You are joining us for brunch, right Shane?" Okay, I was seriously lost now. Alyssa seemed to actually beg Shane to eat with us with her eyes. Weird. She couldn't be uncomfortable with me, could she? I mean, she was the one who asked me over. It took Shane a little while before he answered and by then we were both staring at him. Damn my resolve not to look at him didn't seem to last.  
"Sure. I wasn't able to get breakfast because you came barging in earlier. So it's only fitting that you cook for me" Shane winked at me as he finished up what he was saying. Holy hell, that was hot. If I was attracted to Shane when he was all brooding and shit, it was nothing compared to when he was being all charming.

Brunch went really well. Shane seemed like a completely different person and kept smiling at me. My panties might have been slightly wet when we were done eating. We started to clear out the table and I offered to do the dishes. At first Alyssa wouldn't hear about it, but we made a compromise that she'd set away all the food while I did the dishes. As I started to wash, Shane came up to dry. I got lost in thoughts as I wondered about how come he'd been so distant and, well, rather rude when I'd first met him, only to become this smiling, charming guy now. I really couldn't find any reasonable explanation. It didn't take long to finish the dishes, seeing as most of the food was still in the various trays, containers and what not for storing until dinner. When we finished the dishes I turned around and gave Shane a big smile, while thanking him for the help. He was still smiling when suddenly he froze and just kept staring at my neck. Gone was charming Shane and back was brooding Shane. My hand went up to my neck, where I felt nothing out of the ordinary, all that was there was my butterfly necklace.  
"Where did you get that?" he asked  
"What, my necklace?"  
"Yeah"  
"I don't remember actually. But it's my favorite necklace, I wear it all the time".

"I gotta go" Shane burst out, turning on his heel and disappeared. Leaving me nailed to the ground unable to phantom what just happened.

_**Michael POV**_

I was just sitting at home playing on my guitar when Shane'd called me. He seemed quite frantic, which was why I was now on my way to his house. He hadn't told me much about what was going on, just that there was some girl bonding time going on and that he really needed me to come over. When I got to the house, imagine my surprise when Claire opened the door. Seemed like Shane wasn't just freaking out over nothing – it was another Claire incident. I should've figured.

I told Claire that I was there to see Shane, before going to his room. Shane was pacing around stopping at the couch, seemingly deciding whether or not to sit down, before he started pacing again. I just stood there looking for a while. Though I couldn't help but to feel bad for Shane, it was a little funny to see him like this. Not that Shane was the most composed person, far from it, but it was usually his temper that got the best of him. I'd never seen him act like this over girl before, the only one who'd ever had a slight similar effect like this on him, had been Claire before she moved away. Seemed we were coming full circle.

When I thought I'd better put him out of his misery, I made a fake cough and Shane finally seemed to notice me.  
"So, what's gotten you all hot and bothered?" I asked.  
"Oh, I was just… Umm, you see…. It's just…" I was fighting a losing battle with the laughter that started to bubble inside me.  
"Okay Shane, just calm down and tell me what's going on". I managed not to burst out laughing, but I'm pretty sure I had a big ass smile on my face.  
"Dude, stop smiling. It's not funny!" So I guess my big ass smile wasn't helping Shane calm down, who knew? I was full on laughing now.  
"Sorry, but it's not every day I see you like this. Cut a guy some slack, will ya".  
Shane actually seemed to loosen up a bit when I said that.  
"There's just this whole chick bonding thing goin' on. I just needed to get away from them, ya know"  
He started telling me about how Alyssa had been coming into the kitchen, how Claire suddenly showed up and about their brunch.  
"She's wearing my necklace"  
"Huh?" I was puzzled, who was wearing what necklace?  
"CLAIRE, she's wearing the necklace I gave her". So okay, I'll admit it… I don't keep track of every gift given to my friends by other friends, but I really didn't know that Shane had ever given Claire any gifts without the rest of us – we had usually all chipped in and bought birthday, Christmas presents etc. together, to be able to get a decent gift.  
"You gave Claire a necklace? When did that happen?"  
"At her 13th birthday. I never told you guys and apparently neither did she. I went up and gave it to her when she was upstairs alone…. Right after I kissed her…" I'm pretty sure my mouth dropped all the way to the floor. Shane had actually kissed Claire? Who the fuck knew he'd had it in him.  
"You never told me"  
"I never told anyone and she left not too long after. Anyway, we were doing the dishes earlier and once we were done, Claire turned around and I saw it. The necklace I gave her" Shane sighed. This was a whole other Shane than I was used to, and I didn't quite know what to tell him.  
"I asked her about the necklace and she told me that she didn't know how she'd gotten it, but it's her favorite necklace and that she wears it all the time… That's gotta mean something….. right?" Shane looked at me like a lost puppy. I didn't know whether to laugh or feel sorry for the guy.  
"I don't know. Do you want it to mean something?" I inquired.  
"I don't know man, she's been gone for so long. I don't really know what I want right now" Shane was quiet for a second before saying "God, I need to stop this before I start sounding like a girl".  
HA, too late for that I thought.  
"Well, what do you say that we go down and hang out with the girls? Then you can get to know Claire a little better again. Though after spending the last week or so with her, I can tell you she's pretty much the same old Claire. She's just grown up a bit."  
"Ehhh. I kinda went up here to get away from her. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle this". Shane wouldn't look into my eyes, but instead he opted to look down at his feet.  
"Shane, you do realize that you called me over here, right?"  
"Obviously" now there's a glimpse of the Shane I knew.  
"What I meant was, we NEVER hang out here. You always come over to the Glass House. So it's pretty clear to me that while you might not be sure what to do, you're reluctant to leave Claire. So what do you say, ready to head down?"

_**Shane POV**_

What the fuck had just happened? Did Michael have a point? The part about us never hanging out at my house was true, we'd never ever hung out at my house since Michael had lived at the Glass House without parents. Holy hell, what was going on with me?

* * *

_A/N : I'd REALLY love some feedback. I only got 3 reviews on last chapter, and while I'm happy 3 people actually took time out to write a comment, I'd love to get some more feedback.  
Good or bad as long as the bad ones include constructive critisism.  
Hope you enjoyed the update :)_


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N : Sorry about the delay. I don't really have any excuses, except that I've been reading too damn much.  
I now have a tumblr where I recommend fics I think are good. It's mainly Twilight fics tho, but I'll also post the occasional WHiM teaser and other stuff. So come join the fun  
Tumblr = besomebody82(dot)tumblr(dot)com - Twitter = twitter(dot)com/besomebody82_

_Rachel Caine owns. I own nothing but a rather lame imagination ;P_

* * *

Chapter 8

_**Claire POV**_

I couldn't believe what had happened with Shane earlier. I was currently situated in one of the couches in front of the TV in the living room, trying not to think about what Michael and Shane was doing upstairs. Alyssa had been busy getting sweets ready when the doorbell had rung, so she'd asked me to get it. Imagine my surprise to find Michael outside the door. Michael had seemed a little surprised to see me too, but had quickly gone upstairs to Shane. Which left me sitting here trying to figure out what was going on with everything instead of following the movie. Thank god we were watching Grease, I pretty much knew that movie by heart.

Obviously I was attracted to Shane, that much was clear to me. I'd just never felt attracted to anyone at this degree before, and it was freaking the hell out of me. Aside from the fact that I'd only seen him twice, he'd pretty much been a douche to me most of the time.

I got pulled out of my thoughts as Shane and Michael entered the living room.  
"Hi girls, whuzzz uppp" Michael was clearly trying to be funny. I snickered simply because it didn't seem like Michael knew how outdated he sounded. Shane was standing in the background behind Michael. My breath hitched as our eyes connected. I completely froze and we were just caught in the stare.  
Michael was still talking but I didn't hear a word he was saying. Suddenly Michael sat down in the other couch with Alyssa and Shane moved to stand in front the couch where I was sitting.  
"You don't mind, do you?" he asked.  
I'd been completely lost in the stare we'd just shared, so I had no clue what he was talking about.  
"Ummm. No?" It came out more like a question than a statement. However Shane still seemed to relax a little and went to sit down beside me.  
"What the hell are you girls watching?" Michael asked.  
"Grease. Don't you start complaining you asshat. You guys were the ones who asked to crash our girl bonding time, so you just suck it up or leave" Alyssa retorted.  
"Geeze girl, calm down. I wasn't saying anything. Though if I would have said anything I would have said that this movie sucks ass. Why do we have to watch such a girly movie" Michael pouted.  
"Shut it dimwit. First of all, you're crashing our girl time, so we call the shots. Second, I seem to recall how you forced us all to watch Grease a couple of years back because it's 'so great'. Third, are you fucking pouting? Dude, that's such a girly thing to do".

I watched the exchange between Michael and Alyssa with much amusement. It was clear that they weren't being malicious, but merely teased each other. Obviously my new group of friends all had very strong bond between them, and I couldn't help but feel honored that they were letting me in to their little circle of friends.  
Shane hadn't uttered a word and being the nosy person I am, I turned to face him to see how he was reacting to Alyssa and Shane's banter. However, Shane wasn't looking at them, he was looking at me. I still had my smile of amusement on my face and Shane smiled back at me. I felt butterflies in my stomach and quickly looked away, feeling a blush appear all over my face.

"Hey Michael, just shut the fuck up and let's watch the movie" Shane intervened putting a stop to their childish banter.

I kept sneaking glances at Shane who was sitting like he was carved out of stone staring at the TV. I couldn't help but to sigh and Shane's eyes darted towards me.  
"So, you're big on the romance stuff?" he asked me.  
I was puzzled until I noticed we were almost at the end of the movie, where they both try to change for each other. Apparently Shane thought that I was sighing because of the movie, nothing could have further from the truth.  
"Um, yeah I guess. I mean, it's really nice that they like each other so much that they're trying to change for each other" I was a little embarrassed and the complete silence in the room, except for the sounds coming from the TV wasn't helping. So I continued.  
"But if someone really loves you, they wouldn't want you to change. I mean, if you want things to work out for you, you wouldn't want to be someone you really aren't".  
"Hear hear" it came from Michael. "So you haven't changed for your boyfriend back in LA?"  
Michael sounded all casual when he asked that, but did he seriously think I had a boyfriend back in LA? I hadn't mentioned anything about any boyfriends to Michael. While Michael was all casual and just relaxing in the couch, I felt Shane stiffen besides me. I was wondering about what could possibly make him uncomfortable… I mean, it wasn't like it was his love life we were suddenly discussing. I suddenly realized that it'd taken for too long for me to answer, and now I had all 3 of them looking at me. Great, just great, now it'd seem like I was hiding something.  
"I don't have a boyfriend. I mean, not that I've never had one there's been some boys in LA but nothing really lasting and it was just…" I needed to stop my word vomit NOW "yeah, I don't have a boyfriend".  
I felt Shane relax beside me for a second before he tensed up again. What the hell was with that boy?

Okay, so maybe the whole "some boys" wasn't the entire truth, but there was no way in hell I would sit here and admit to three people staring at me that I'd only had one boyfriend – and that we'd ever only held hands and shared a few chaste kisses.

"So now that my love life is out in the open, what about all you guys? Any boyfriends / girlfriends I haven't met yet?" I said trying to distract them, as I could see that Michael was about to say more.

"Nope, no relationships here. Al has yet to find Mr. Right. Shane doesn't do relationships. He's more a love them and leave them kind of guy and I have yet to meet someone who meets my high standards" Michael joked. At least I think he was joking.  
"But now you're in town, who knows what will happen" Michael winked at me  
"Oh yeah?" I couldn't resist and I winked back at Michael.  
"Oh yeah" Michael's eyes were practically glistening with mischief.  
"So I take it it's a good thing I'm back in town then huh" I said back while sending Michael another wink. I didn't really know what came over me. I'd never been overly outgoing and flirty with guys, but this was just completely uncomplicated flirting with no seriousness to it at all – and even though it was just Michael, it was a little fun to be all flirty.  
Shane huffed beside me.  
"I didn't fucking sign up for this girl shit – you two doing whatever fucking twisted thing you're doing" He practically yelled while he got up from the couch and stomped out of the room. My eyes shifted from Shane to Alyssa, who was staring at Shane then Michael and finally me with wide eyes. I had no clue what just happened.  
"Fuck" Michael murmured before he got up and followed Shane out of the room.

_**Michael POV**_

I followed Shane out of the room, not knowing what to expect. Obviously Shane was upset but how upset? Would he actually punch me? Seriously, Claire and I had only had a little playful banter, since Shane was the king of flirting he couldn't really bitch about it. It really didn't mean anything but maybe this was a good thing. It was so obvious that he and Claire were dancing around the bush even though Claire has only been back a week , and from what I'd seen and heard about their encounters so far, Claire must be getting a whiplash from his mood swings. Shane needed to step up his game and at least try to befriend Claire and see if he actually liked this new Claire.

Claire had always been one of my favorite persons, but there was no doubt that whatever she'd done the last few years had changed her. Not for the worse if you ask me, Claire had never been this completely shy girl who sat in a corner, but she had a whole new confidence about her that she didn't have before. If Shane didn't get his ass out of his butt, he'd end up not getting a shot at all.

~o ~o ~o ~

_**EVE POV**_

I'd texted with Alyssa during the afternoon and since they'd pretty much been munching on sweets all day they weren't really hungry, so we'd decided to have a late dinner when I arrived.

I didn't even bother knocking when I got there, the door was unlocked anyway. There's a lot of shitty things about living in Morganville, but one positive thing would be the fact that vampires can't get in to a house without being invited in. Obviously that didn't mean that doors never got locked, of course they did. But Morganville did have a rather low crime rate and it wasn't completely uncommon for our group of friends to leave the door unlocked if we were expecting each other.

It'd been a rather exhausting day at work, so I was really looking forward to chilling with my friends. However when I entered the kitchen the atmosphere was anything but comfortable. All four of my friends where in there preparing our dinner, which pretty much consisted of leftovers from the brunch they had earlier, but none of them were saying a word to each other.

"Okay guys, who the fuck died and made y'all acting like you're at a funeral?" The words left my mouth before I even had time to really assess the situation. They all turned around and looked at me, but no one said anything. I looked at Michael for him to answer my question, but he just shrugged and then turned around to continue what he was doing.

I decided to just wait it out until I could get Alyssa alone and hear what the fuck was going on.  
"So what can I do?" I asked.  
"Oh no, you just stay far away from the food. We actually want to be able to eat something that's tasty tonight" Michael teased. Okay, so I might be one of those persons who can burn boiling water, but that was just uncalled for if you ask me, so obviously I had to go over and flick Michael on the head.  
"Behave or I'll never cook for your sorry ass again".  
I looked over at Claire who was looking at us with her mouth hanging wide open before laughing so the tears stood out of her eyes. Shane stood dumbstruck to the floor just looking at Claire, before he too started laughing with Claire. It didn't take long until all of us where holding our stomachs because we were laughing so hard. Well, all except Michael who was trying to hide his smile and look stern.

"Yeah, Yeah. Just laugh it up. I'll get you all when you least expect it. Especially you smart ass" Michael said while messing with my hair. I squeeled and jumped back.  
"Don't mess with the hair dude. Not cool, not cool at all". However, I wasn't insulted. I just had to keep the butterflies at bay that now flew around in my stomach. Any touch from Michael, however innocent, always made those pesky butterflies appear. At least the tension seemed to have left the room and everyone was doing small talk while setting the last things on the table.

Dinner went fairly smooth and before long we were lounging in the living room preparing to watch a movie. Claire and Shane sitting in the 2 person couch while Alyssa and I sat in the bigger couch with Michael between us. As the movie started, Alyssa and I put our legs across Michael's lap as was our custom. Claire looked over at us while giggling at our entangled legs and Michael rolling his eyes as to state that he was annoying, even though he clearly wasn't.

The movie started, but I was too busy looking at Shane and Claire to notice what movie it was. Shane had picked it, so I figured it'd be some action movie. Claire was trying to get comfortable in the couch, but couldn't seem to find the right position for her. If it'd been Alyssa or I, Shane would have lost his shit ages ago, but with Claire he just gestured for her to put her legs across him much in the same way as Alyssa and I was sitting. I was so busy looking at the wonder that was Shane and Claire to really notice what anyone was saying. Michael nudged me in the side and I came to. Michael nodded his head towards Shane and Claire and gave me a big smile. Seemed I wasn't the only one who'd noticed how both Claire and Shane were now completely relaxed instead of Shane sitting stiff like a board and Claire fidgeting around all over her seat.

Everyone was finally settled and I noticed that we weren't watching an action movie but rather the comedy "Meet the Fockers" with Ben Stiller. Everything was quiet and relaxed except for the occasional giggle or laugh. Michael started massaging my feet and I was in heaven. I can't remember the last time I'd been so relaxed.

It seem I wasn't the only one who was completely relaxed, seeing as when the movie was over Claire was fast asleep. Shane wasn't moving a muscle as to not wake Claire, which was kinda cute since if it'd been Alyssa or I, he'd have waken us up already and teased us about falling asleep.

"Why don't you carry her to my room and let her sleep?" Alyssa asked Shane in a hushed voice and Shane nodded. Shane got up and got a hold of Claire, who only stirred a little as she put her hands around Shane's neck and snuggled her face into his neck. A collective "awww" came from the three of us, while Shane just gave us a glare and disappeared up the stairs. We put in another movie, but Shane never came down to join us again.

* * *

_A/N : So, how did you like it? lemme know what you think.  
Just a heads up, I will try to write a couple of chapters before I post again, so I can be a little ahead and perhaps post more frequently after that._


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N : First of all, thank you to everyone who's reviewed. It really does mean a lot!_

_Sorry it's taken so long. However the next chapter is also written - and will be posted next weekend.  
I might be swayed to post it sooner if I get a lot of comments *hint hint*;)_

_Rachel Caine owns_

* * *

**_I could never be a blind man  
I got eyes and, they've been busy watching you  
I could never lose my eyesight  
But I just might, if I stare too long at you_**

Ned Brower – Underneath Your Spell

Chapter 9

_**Claire POV**_

I woke up in the middle of the night not knowing where I was. It took my eyes a few minutes to adjust to the darkness but then I saw the outline of Alyssa's room. How had I gotten up here? The last thing I remembered was watching the movie. I was still fully clothed, so I put on my favorite old oversized t-shirt that I always slept in.  
Alyssa and Eve weren't in the room and I went to search for them. I didn't bother with the light, but felt my way down the stairs. I couldn't help but giggle when I saw them. Alyssa was now sleeping on the couch where Shane and I had been sitting earlier, while Michael and Eve were tangled up in each other on the bigger couch. They looked so cute together and I really hoped they'd get their acts together and realize they both had feelings for each other.  
The TV was still on. I turned it off and went upstairs to go to the bathroom. As to not stumble over anything I kept my eyes firmly on the ground. I probably should've turned the lights on, but I didn't know how much the light would shine through downstairs and I didn't want to wake them up.

*THUMP* I shrieked as I collided with something hard and put my hands up to steady myself. Oh lord, whatever I had collided with seemed to move. I looked up and straight into Shane's eyes. His mouth wide open, looking like he'd just seen a ghost. I'm sure I didn't look much different. I let my eyes wonder down his body. Holy crap, he was practically nude. He'd obviously just taken a shower because his hair was wet and the only thing he was wearing was a towel. Ohhhhh. Wait, Shane was practically nude in front of me and I still had my hands on his bare chest. As I realized the scene, I jumped a step back removing my hands from Shane's body but I couldn't help but stare at his naked chest for a little while longer. Damn that boy was fit. No too muscular but not too skinny either. I wondered if I was drooling. Neither of us had said anything and I was trying to get my mouth to work with me to say something, anything, to break the tension.

"I'm sorry" huh? What did Shane have to sorry about? Taking a shower in his own house?  
"Oh, no. Don't be. I'm sorry. I totally wasn't expecting anyone to be up and I just had to use the bathroom. The other guys are sound asleep downstairs, they look so cute. What are you doing? I mean, obviously you were taking a shower, but….." I finally cut myself off. Fuck my life. From not being able to speak to this crap in zero seconds? Someone kill me now. I hadn't even finished my train of thoughts before I heard a laughter coming from Shane. Not a full on loud laughter, more like a deep buzzing that sounded like it came all the way from his stomach. Damn if that wasn't the most delicious sound I'd ever heard. I pulled out of my daze and said sorry for rambling in a low voice.

" 's okay, so we're both sorry. I really wasn't expecting anyone either" Shane threw me a crooked smile. Swoon. He really needed to stop that or my legs would give out under me and THAT would be really embarrassing. Seriously, what the heck was wrong with me? I'd never had this strong of a reaction to a guy before.

"How did I get up here anyway? The last thing I remember is watching the movie. I can't believe I fell asleep during Meet the Fockers. I love that movie". I asked needed to focus my thoughts on something different from my reaction to Shane, which by the way wasn't working since the actual last thing I remembered was Shane's hands on my knees after he told me it would be okay for me to put my legs across him as Eve and Alyssa did with Michael. He'd been all sweet about it too. Dammit, why couldn't I keep my thoughts from straying?

"Well, we agreed to just let you sleep, so I carried you up to Alyssa's bed so the other guys could watch another movie without waking you up. You looked so peaceful"

"Ohhh, well thank you so much. I guess I really needed the sleep" damn, I've turned in to a full on lame person. Couldn't I at least say something intelligent? I didn't know how I felt about it being Shane who'd carried me upstairs, I'd kinda figured it'd been Michael.

I suddenly realized how I must look as I took a look down myself. Only wearing an oversized t-shirt and I'm pretty sure my hair was sticking out everywhere. Holy crap. I think Shane must have realized around the same time that he was standing in the hallway half naked, because he suddenly looked very uncomfortable.  
After some awkward silence we said goodnight. Shane went into his room and I went to the bathroom and then back to sleep.

~o ~o ~o ~

_**Shane POV**_

I'm pathetic. No, seriously! What dude runs around pining after a girl 24/7? Me, that's who. It's been a week since Claire slept over at my house and I'd come up with all sorts of excuses to go wherever she was during that week. Acting cool of course, no fucking way I'd let anyone know what was going on. I'd even gone so far as to visit "Alyssa" on campus, just to get a glimpse of Claire. Slightly stalkerish and full on pathetic.

All in all everything had gone okay. None of us that mentioned the bumping into each other in the middle of the night half naked thing. God her body, even just thinking about her body pressed against mine made me semi stiff. I couldn't believe I'd gone into the bathroom in the middle of the night to relieve myself, just to have the same problem again as soon as I left the bathroom. If this continued every time I as much as thought about Claire, I'd get a serious case of blue balls.

Everything had sucked pretty bad after my outburst towards Michael. It was just so fucking annoying that Michael could act that way around Claire and I couldn't. Everything had gone pretty well after Eve came and eased some of the tension. I hadn't been able to keep my eyes off Claire after she'd fallen asleep during the movie and when the others had suggested I'd take her upstairs and put her in bed, I'd jumped at the chance to feel Claire against my body as I carried her upstairs. Yes, I'm a sick fucker and enjoyed the feeling even though Claire was asleep. I made sure not to touch her inappropriately though. I might be a sick fuck and newly turned stalker, but I'm not a creep. Claire had put her hands up around my neck and actually played with my hair, I don't know how the fuck she did that because it was obvious that she hadn't been awake but it felt amazing.

Once I'd put her down in Alyssa's bed I just stood there watching her like the creeper I am before walking into my own room. I really fucking wished that Claire was in my bed instead of in Alyssa's bed and just thinking about that made me have a big problem…. If you know what I mean. I'd tried to just will it away but after a couple of hours with no progress whatsoever (I can't fucking help that dirty thoughts about Claire are impossible to get out of my head), I'd decided to go into the bathroom to take care of it.

I'd stepped out of the shower with the problem solved and just threw a towel around my waist for the short walk into my room. It wasn't like I'd expected to run into anyone on the way… That's when a small body had crashed into mine. Claire had put her hands on my chest to steady herself and it felt so fucking awesome that I had a hard time trying to suppress a groan. That's when I'd noticed what she was wearing. Holy fucking hell. Not only was she just wearing an oversized t-shirt, but I was pretty damn sure it was one of MY old shirts.

I was speechless and all I could do was stand there and stare. Claire wasn't saying anything either but suddenly she looked down at herself and her eyebrows wrinkled. That's when I realized what I creep I was. Standing in the hallway just ogling the girl. No wonder she'd suddenly rushed to say goodnight and practically ran into Alyssa's bedroom.

Which brings us back to the Clare stalking. I was at the Glass house playing video games with Michael. For some reason Michael and I sat on the floor with our back up again the 3 person couch, while Eve was sitting on the other couch laughing at us while we were yelling profanities at each other while trying to one up the other. I had no idea where Claire was, all I know is that she wasn't in the house as I'd hoped she'd be.

"Dude, I'm whooping your ass so bad. Where the fuck's your head at?" Michael gloated when winning the third game in a row.  
"Shut the fuck up asshat" No way in hell I'd let him know, especially when Eve was sitting right next to us. I glanced over at her and she threw a fucking smirk at me. What the fuck? If she thought she knew something I wouldn't fucking know what it was. There's no way she could know….. was there? Stupid ass friends thinking they know fucking everything. My mood was becoming foul. Stupid game, stupid fucking friends, fucking Claire…. Wait, what? No. There'd be no fucking Claire. What? I seriously needed to stop this train of thoughts.

_**Eve POV**_

Shane kept losing the game that he and Michael was playing. That was really out of the norm, seeing as usually Shane beat Michael like 75% of the time – to tell you the truth I think it's because Shane's lazy ass sat around to house playing video games wayyyy too much, but that's just what I think – and I couldn't help but to smirk at him. Unfortunately that happened just as Shane looked over at me. Damn, I didn't really mean for him to see, but seriously who did he think he was fooling?

It was fairly obvious that Shane had a thing for Claire especially since he'd pretty much been following her around like a lost puppy the last week. I don't know exactly what happened after Shane carried Claire upstairs Saturday night, though I'm sure that Shane would never have taken advantage of Claire – he's just not that kind of guy. Sure he might have taken advantage of a few sluts in the past, but that was more like mutual exploitation seeing as they were exactly that… sluts… but all in all Shane's a really stand up guy when it comes down to it. However, the next morning Claire and Shane never looked directly at each other, though they both snuck glances at each other when the other wasn't looking. I even saw Claire blush a few times, like she'd suddenly thought of something dirty. Who knew she had it in her? The rest of us just smiled at each other and continued to make small talk.

Monday I'd been at work when Shane entered Common Grounds in the afternoon. It's not uncommon for Shane to come get some coffee, but he never stays long. This Monday he stayed a good four hours, ordering coffee after coffee and staring at the door like he was hoping for someone to enter. She never did. I'd known that she wouldn't since her and Alyssa had a study date at our house, but Shane never asked and I never told. When my shift was over Shane asked me if I knew whether or not Michael was home, to which I could only respond that no, Michael wasn't home. He was doing some music thing that night. When Shane heard that he looked completely dejected, but seeing as he'd seen Claire the day before I wasn't going to take pity on him just yet.

Tuesday I didn't work and I didn't see Shane at all but Alyssa called me that evening and told me all about how Shane had shown up at school to supposedly see her. We both had a good giggle about that because Shane would never willingly show his face at the school to see Alyssa. Alyssa admitted that she'd been a little spoofed at first, thinking that maybe something was wrong – but then Shane had said that he just wanted to bring her lunch, while he was throwing searching glances around the room. Claire had entered and Shane had presented them both with a sandwich from Common Grounds. Apparently Shane didn't leave until both Alyssa and Claire had to go to Class.

Wednesday Claire and Alyssa had another study date and it seemed like Alyssa had taken pity towards Shane because Claire later told me that he'd been home the entire time she was there.

Both Thursday and Friday Shane had shown up at the coffee shop again, but those times his luck had been better. Claire had come in to study a little before hitching a ride home with me and Shane bought her coffee… both days. Friday he'd even gone grocery shopping with us before we all headed back to the Glass House to have dinner.

Yeah. I'd say that the poor sucker have it bad and we all know it.

_**Shane POV**_

As if on cue, just after my ummm… how to put it nicely… stray thoughts about Claire naked, the front door opened and a few seconds later Claire came into the living room. I tried to keep my eyes glued to the screen in front of me, but to no avail. Claire was a knee long black skirt and a simple black top. Fuck she looked nice.

"Hi guys. Wasting the day away I see" Claire said with a smile.  
"You know it" Michael answered her while Eve just smiled back at Claire. I just grumbled a low hi and continued to play the game. Or… well I tried to, but after a few seconds it came to my attention that none of the characters on the screen were moving.  
"What the fuck!" I mumbled.  
"Dude, what are you doing? You do realize I put the game on pause like 2 minutes ago, right?" Michael's annoying voice said next to me.  
"Sure… The pause across the screen gave it away" I said acting like I'd totally known all along.  
I don't think any of them bought it, because they all burst out laughing. Motherfuckers.

However I didn't have long to ponder about the fuckers that pretends to be my friends because Claire came over sat on the couch right next to where I was sitting on the floor. She was so close that I could smell her. Damn she smelled good. I couldn't exactly pinpoint the smell.. or fragrance or what the fuck girls call it – but it was just so Claire.

"What have you been up to today? You were gone when we woke up" Eve asked Claire but Michael didn't give her a chance to answer.  
"You really ought to let us know where you're going you know. It's not safe around here" If she only knew how fucking right Michael was. If she'd let me, I wouldn't mind being her personal bodyguard around Morganville… But I had a feeling she wouldn't and I wasn't about to become an even bigger stalker than I already was.  
"I just went out with some job applications, you know I've been talking about finding a job. I need some spending money, can't let mom and dad pay for everything. It's not a big deal. Come on, it's not like we're in some big city like New York or L.A" Claire pouted. It was probably the fucking cutest thing I'd ever seen. FUCK ME. I really fucking need to not turn into a girl… the next thing you know I'd have grown tits.  
"It's dangerous enough. Just please leave us a note or something telling us where you've gone."  
Claire snorted, clearly not convinced.

"Back me up here Shane" My head snapped towards Michael. Why the hell did he think she'd listen to anything I had to say?  
"Claire, please let Eve and Michael know where you're going when you go out. It'd really make m…. ummm.. them feel a lot better. Morganville might seem like a nice town, but you have no idea what dwells below the surface" I said while turning to look at her and we locked eyes. After a second too long - damn I tell you, you could drown in those eyes – I turned back to face the screen again.  
"Fine, I will" was all Claire responded but I couldn't help feel a little victorious.

The rest of the afternoon went more or less okay. I still couldn't get my head straight though and lost a fucking lot of games to Michael before we called it quits. The girls went outside to sunbathe. Well, Claire wanted to sunbathe, Eve wasn't really the sunbathing type but I'm sure she sat in the shade somewhere underneath one of the big trees in the garden. I tried my best not to sneak a peek at Claire in her bikini, and I'm fucking proud to say I didn't look too much or too often. Michael and I wasn't too happy about the girls hanging out outside, you never know who'd sneak around. But we figured that since the new vampires couldn't be outside in the sun for long, and the older vampires seemed more prune to the rules it would be okay. Besides, Eve would be alert for sure. She knows how to survive in Morganville better than anyone.

Alyssa came over just before it got dark and we decided to stay the night as to not risk going home after nightfall. We had a really great evening just hanging out before I crashed in "my" room and Alyssa crashed in Claire's room… fuck how I wish it'd been the other way around.

* * *

_A/N : As always... let me know what you think... Love it? Hate it? Please let me know :)_

Tumblr = besomebody82(dot)tumblr(dot)com - Twitter = twitter(dot)com/besomebody82


	10. Chapter 10

_Remember that little flashback Shane had about Claire's birthday in chapter 4?  
I've written an **outtake** about that day from Claire POV. Claire might not remember right now, but you'll get the chance to see her side of that day._

_I'm **posting** the **outtake** as a **separate story** on **Wednesday August 4th 2010 **(who knows, maybe there'll be more outtakes in the future)._

_I hope to update WHiM again next Saturday, but since it's not done yet I don't promise anything._

_Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, I'm glad to hear you like it... I'd love to hear more thoughts though :)_

_Anyway, here's the new chapter... Hope you enjoy._

_I don't own - Rachel Caine does._

* * *

Chapter 10

_**Alyssa POV**_

Things were going so well. Claire seemed to have lifted all our spirits and even at times made us forget how much we hated living in Morganville. The most amazing transformation was Shane though. I was so excited to have my happy smiling big brother back instead of the hot tempered rude guy he'd been the last couple of years. I don't know exactly happened between Claire and Shane the first week of Shane's "stalking", as we had come to call it, but somehow they seemed to be a lot closer again. They hadn't gone out on any real dates or anything, but they did occasionally hang out alone at Common Grounds or at the Glass House. The rest of us could easily see that they both wanted more, even though it didn't seem like they could see that themselves. None of us rushed them or tried to push them together - yet. Claire had been away for so long and it still didn't seem like she'd gotten her memories back, though at times she did comment on some things feeling familiar.

While Shane and Claire spend a lot of time together, Claire made sure she never forgot the rest of us and Shane had even gone so far as to hang out with me at home a few times. Like I said, it was great to have my brother back. Claire coming back seemed to have bonded us in a way we hadn't been bonded in years.

That being said, I couldn't help but to be a little concerned. We never knew what made Claire and her family move away. With Claire not remembering her time in Morganville, we had no way to find out and I had a sneaky suspicion that it might be important. Needless to say I felt a little restless, but mostly I was able to push it to the back of my mind.

_**Claire POV**_

I couldn't believe it'd only been a little more than a month since I moved to Morganville. I had never expected to bond with so many people in such a short amount of time. I now had 4 best friends. Eve, Michael, Alyssa and Shane had all been amazing towards me… Well, obviously Shane hadn't really been that easy to figure out in the beginning. Now he seemed so much more relaxed and we actually had long conversations about pretty much everything.

At times I'd feel a strange sense of déjà-vu. It could be everything… A smile from Shane, a few words from Eve. Anything. One time we all went for a walk and came across a playground. The guys started acting like they were kids again and we all went into the playground. I found myself on a swing with Shane pushing me, when I looked over my shoulder to look at him, the sense of déjà-vu was so strong that I actually fell off the swing. Thank god I wasn't too high up when it happened. They all rushed over to make sure I was okay and Shane helped me up from the ground. Even though my wrists and my knee hurt like hell, I'd never felt more loved than I did right then.

I never asked my friends any questions regarding my déjà-vu. I don't know why I didn't. It's not that I thought they would start laughing at me or look at me like I was crazy. I just had this strange feeling that maybe it was better if I didn't acknowledge it.

I still hadn't found a job, apparently jobs don't hang on trees in Morganville, but I was actually on my way to an interview right now. This woman Amalie had called me this morning and asked me if I'd be willing to come in for an interview that same afternoon for a job she had for me "for the city". It was a really strange, she hadn't told me exactly what or where the job was and I didn't remember applying for a job for the city. But I'd sent out so many applications to everywhere in the town, so maybe I'd just forgotten. Amalie had given me an address, but it didn't look right. The address I was at just seemed like an old house. Actually the house looked pretty similar to the Glass House. Wouldn't an interview with for a job for the city be at city hall?

While I was pretty sure I had the wrong address I still rang the door. An old woman opened the door and gave me a suspicious look, but otherwise didn't say anything. I told her I was there for an interview with Amalie and she just gave a nod towards the stairs and said to enter the second door on the right.

I knocked on the door and a female voice told me to enter. I took in the room as I went inside. It didn't really look like it belonged with the rest of the house. This room consisted of really old elegant furniture and had an almost regal feel to it. Behind a big desk a woman sat. She was kinda intimidating. Completely white hair and her skin had an almost see through feel to it. Behind the woman stood too very large intimidating guys.

"Claire. Please sit down" the woman whom I now assumed was Amalie said in a stern voice. I did just that.

"You're probably wondering why I've asked you to come today" Well, I hadn't really before, but now I certainly did. I only managed to give her a nod.

"I don't know if you're parents have mentioned this, but we go way back. No? I figured they might wouldn't have. You see your father actually work for me. We've had some slight, um, issues here in town. So when he asked for permission to leave the town, the job offer he had at hand seemed to be a good opportunity and he's helping us with the research he's doing"

Now I know my dad is a scientist and I'd always found his work very interesting. But I couldn't really imagine him "spying" for Amalie. He'd always had really strong ethics – and what the hell was the deal with "asking permission" to leave town? I'm pretty sure I was frowning.

"I see you're probably wondering if he's doing anything to compromise his position at his current job. I can assure that's not the case. He isn't feeding us information about what he's working on. It merely means that he has better equipment to work on the issues we have here in town"

It didn't make sense to me at all, but before I could voice that I caught myself. It didn't seem like the best idea at the time. Amalie continued.

"I've heard that you've always been very interested in your father's work – and you excel in school. This makes me think you're the right one for the job I have. You'll be working with the town's best scientist, albeit he can be a little, um, difficult at times. This really is a great opportunity for you"

I had no clue what to say, so I still kept my mouth shut.

"I can see that I've given you a lot to think about so let me just say that working for me would be very beneficial for you. I'll let you think about it for a while and then I'll get back to you"

Amalie gave me a nod to indicate that I'd been dismissed. I stood and walked out the door. It wasn't the door closed after me, that I realized that I still didn't have a clue what the job was really about. I turned on my heel and opened the door again.

"Excuse me, but….." my voice faltered. There was no Amalie or guards in the room. Actually it seemed like the whole room had changed. Instead of the elegant furniture that had just been in the room seconds ago there was now a bed centered against the wall where Amalie had just been. The wallpaper now matched the rest of the house and even the carpet was different. To say that I was confused would be an understatement. It took me a few minutes to gather myself, but I finally started to walk down the stairs and out of the house.

_**Eve POV**_

I was working when Claire entered Common Grounds. She had this lost look on her face and it made me want to go over to her straight away. Unfortunately we were extremely busy and there was no way I could take a fucking break. Instead I had to settle for asking her if she was okay when she came over to order an iced tea. All she did was shrug and say that she was fine. Crap. So I did the only thing I could do right at that second which was to change her order to a big size iced tea and add a chocolate cupcake, because we all know that chocolate helps with pretty much everything.

Normally Claire would have demanded to pay the extra cost, even if I'd changed the order by myself. Today she didn't, she just took her iced tea and cupcake and went to stand at one of the high tables, which was the only place there was room left in the coffee shop. She still looked a little lost and very deep in thoughts. I managed to send out a group text to our friends, telling them that something was up with Claire and asking if any of them could come down, since I was too busy to go talk to her.

I kept one eye on Claire while trying to get rid of the afternoon rush. It didn't seem like it would end any time soon, so all I could do was hope that one of our friends would be here soon. I still hadn't gotten a response from any of them and that made me extra jumpy. I had to go out back to pick up some more bagels and when I came back I saw Claire talking to someone. At first I took a breath of relief before tensing up. It wasn't one of our friends talking to Claire. It was Brandon. Crap, crap, crap.. Did I mention crap?

Brandon was bad news. It wasn't so much that he was an important "person" in Morganville, cause of the important "persons" he was pretty damn low on the list… But he was one of THEM. You know, those sucky people who – yeah – like to suck blood… from people. I happened to know that Brandon preferred to get his blood straight from the source…. And the source would preferably be a pretty girl. How do I know this? Well, I'd rather not go into it right now. Let's just say I'd been unfortunate enough to know from personal experience.

I was seriously freaking the fuck out now. While I considered my options I noticed Shane enter Common Grounds. FUCK. I was both relieved that rescue seemed to had come and freaked out that it was Shane. Shane is the least likely to cope with Brandon singling out Claire and not freak out and cause a scene. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. If anything get out of hand I'm sure Oliver will stop it.

_**Shane POV**_

To say I was freaking out when I got the text from Eve saying how Claire was acting weird would be a fucking understatement. I was at home and it would take me at least ten to fifteen minutes to get to Common Grounds. Fucking hell. As I stormed out the door I called Michael. I knew that he had Eve's car today, so I was hoping he could come give me a lift. Fucking douche didn't answer his phone. I was really fucking freaking out now as I tried to call Alyssa. Not that she would have a car to give me a ride but maybe she was closer to Common Grounds or would know more about what the fuck was going on. I was about ten seconds from throwing my phone away when she didn't answer either. I didn't call her any names though, since she's my fucking sister and all.

I was about half way when Alyssa called me back. She told me she'd just read Eve's message and that she was on her way over too. She'd just been let out of her afternoon class and would be at Common Grounds a bit later than me, but she didn't know more about what was going on than I did.

I speeded up even more while trying to call Michael again. The motherfucker still didn't answer his phone. I couldn't remember what he was doing, but I knew there was a reason he was borrowing Eve's car. I guess I couldn't be too angry at the douche, I'm sure he'd have answered the phone if he could. That didn't make me any less angry tho.  
When I was near the coffee shop I slowed down. It wouldn't really do to enter out of breath as it didn't sound like Eve had told Claire that she'd texted us.

When I entered I glanced up at Eve. Her eyes were kinda wide and she seemed freaked out. Eve rarely let it show when she's freaking out, so it wasn't that big of a surprise when I looked over and saw one of the few persons who would get Eve freaked out talking to Claire. Now I was just really fucking pissed. FUCKING BRANDON. I hated that he was anywhere near Claire. I took in Claire's appearance. She didn't look like she was scared, but she did look really fucking uncomfortable. I took a deep breath to try to calm myself down. Going over there kicking and screaming wouldn't do any good with this guy. Not only was he a hell of a lot stronger than me but no one would raise an eyebrow if I was suddenly missing. My friends excluded of course.

I took a few long strides over towards Claire. Both Claire and Brandon looked up as I stood next to Claire, put my arms around her shoulder and leaned over to kiss her forehead. That'll show the fucking bastard. Claire looked a little surprised but didn't object.

"Hi Sweetheart, sorry I'm late" I said while staring daggers at Brandon.

"That's alright. I was just telling Brandon here that I was expecting my friends to show up soon. I'm glad you're the first one here… Honey" SCORE… not only didn't she object to me calling her sweetheart and claiming her as mine, but she fucking played along. That's my girl. If only it was for real.

"Oh, Hi Brandon. How are you doing?" I asked without waiting for a response. "Alyssa should be here in a few. I just talked to her as she was leaving school. Michael should be here soon too".

Okay so really I had no idea if Michael would be here, but I figured it wouldn't hurt if Brandon thought there was more people coming. Brandon seemed to take the hint and prepared to leave.

"I better be going but doll face the offer stands. Just hit me up if you change your mind" OH NO HE DIDN'T! He didn't just fucking hit on MY girl. Claire seemed to sense the tension coming to new heights and put her hand on my arm as to stop me from decking the bastard. I totally would have if she hadn't stopped me. My hate for this guy reached new heights.

"Thanks but no thanks" Claire turned her back towards Brandon, put her hands around my neck and gave me a quick peck on the lips… and then another one… and another one. All thoughts about that fucker Brandon flew out the window and I just enjoyed the kisses. It wasn't long kisses but Claire kept laying them on me and my hands found their way down to her hips. Those fucking amazing hips. It was probably the most chaste kisses I'd ever shared with someone, maybe except for the first kiss I shared with Claire all those years ago, but fuck me if I didn't love them. I was considering going for a deeper kiss when I suddenly heard my sister. What the hell!

"What the fuck was that?"

Claire jumped away from me and I groaned – and not the good kind of groan. I scooted closer to the table to better hide the fact that I was having a slight issue… but it wasn't a fucking little issue, in case you're wondering.

"Relax sis, we were just pretending…" I didn't get any further before Alyssa interrupted me again.

"NO, not that. What that Brandon that just left? What happened? What the hell did he want? What did he do? Are you okay Claire?" Alyssa said while dragging Claire into a hug.

"Okay guys, I love that you're here for me but he didn't really do anything…. He just kinda gave me the creeps"

"Claire, babe, do you think I'll buy that? I was here when he said the offer stands. What did he offer exactly?" I wasn't going to let her just brush her this off.

"Oh… He offered to show me around town. I'd already told him no thanks when you got here"

"Claire, listen to me. That guy is bad news. Like really really bad news. You better stay away from him. Bad things happen to girls that hang out with him" I could kiss my sister right then. Best fucking sister ever. She'd said more or less what I wanted to say – and now I didn't even have to seem possessive or overprotecting.

"Is that all that's going on? Or is there something else bothering you?"

* * *

_Let me know what you think. Good or bad?_

_I'm feeling awfully lonely over on twitter... I'm actually quite talkative, so head on over and we'll get a conversation going... Music, hot guys, bitching, whatever... I'm up for it... so come on over and chat with me... I rarely bite ;) twitter(dot)com(dot)besomebody82_

_Don't forget to check back Wednesday if you feel like reading the outtake._


	11. Chapter 11

_Wow you guys. Even though I haven't updated in forever there's still people who favorite it :O Thank you so much - and especially thanks to the people who's commented. It means a lot to me._

_I'm really really sorry that it's been so long - and unfortunately I can't even promise the next update to come sooner :(_  
_RL is seriously kicking my butt._

_I don't own._

* * *

Chapter 11

_**Claire POV**_

What a day. First the whole thing with Amalie, then when I got to Common Grounds this creepy guy Brandon showed up. The way he talked to me made me uncomfortable though it wasn't so much what he said but how he said it. Okay, honestly it was both but what really freaked me out about him was his eyes.

I hadn't thought about Amalie's eyes at the time, but they were actually kind of a similar pale color. But where Amalie's eyes just seemed cold, there was almost an evil glint to Brandon's eyes… Also, before today I'd never seen an eye color like this… So pale that it was almost silver. It was really rather scary.

Then Shane showed up like a knight in shining armor. Big sigh. I couldn't even believe that I'd actually kissed him, it's so not me to do something like that. I might have gotten a little caught up with the whole pretending thing. I'd just really wanted to put Brandon in his place after he'd still hit on me - even after Shane and I had made it seem like we were together… And maybe, just MAYBE, I really just wanted to kiss Shane.

Now Alyssa was asking what was bothering me. I didn't even know where to begin.

_**Alyssa POV**_

Catching Claire and Shane kissing should probably have embarrassed me a little instead of just making me happy. I mean it is my freaking brother I just caught kissing my friend. However, the fact that they were kissing and how I felt about that was completely overshadowed by the fact that I saw Brandon talking to them, or should I say to Claire since it was obvious that he was mostly ignoring Shane, before walking away.

I know what kind of person Brandon is. Not only do I know what the creep did to Eve but he almost had me fooled at one time too. Things went a little bad after Claire left Morganville and for a while I had pretty much zero contact with Michael and Eve, that's the reason I didn't know what had Brandon had done to Eve. Luckily Eve saw Brandon and I out on a date at Common Grounds and after that she made sure I knew all about him. Brandon didn't seem too affected by the whole thing, but then again he never really seemed to care much about humans unless he got to snack on them.

"Um, I don't even know where to begin" Claire gave a half hearted laugh.

I threw a glance at Shane who was now looking very worried over what had Claire so disturbed.

"Okay, so you know how I've been looking for a job. Well, this morning I got a call from a woman called Amalie.." Claire didn't get any further because both Shane and I gasped at the mention of Amalie. She's like the most important person in Morganville. What the hell did she want with Claire?

"What?" Claire looked at Shane with a confused look.

"Nothing babe, please continue" Huh? Babe? And being polite? Who are you and what have you done with my brother dear? Claire didn't seem to catch it though and continued to tell her story.

"Anyway, I went to the job interview and apparently she wants me to work with some great scientist. She told me that she'd let me think about it, but when I left I realized that I didn't really know anything about the job besides that and I went back into the room and…" Claire lowered her voice and moved her head closer to ours.

"it wasn't the same room" She looked at us like she expected some sort of reaction from us. Truth be told, though I've never experienced it personally, it just wasn't news to us.

"Oh" was all I said.

"Wait, you're not acting like I'm crazy?"

"Well, that does sound a little odd. But if you tell us that's what happened then we trust you" Shane offered, looking a bit uncomfortable. Obviously he was, like me, trying to figure out what to tell her without telling her everything.

_**Claire POV**_

What the hell just happened. I'd practically just admitted that I'm crazy and my two friends just acted like it was no big deal? Not that I didn't appreciate my friends supporting me, but this day just kept getting more and more weird. I felt like I should know something that I didn't. That I knew something that I could almost remember but not quite. You know how you sometimes forget a name and it's on the tip of your tongue but you just can't remember? Yeah, that's exactly how I felt about this whole thing.

Needless to say I was really freaking confused.

After my friends just pretended that what I said wasn't a big deal I asked if they thought that I should take the job.

"Ummm… well, Amelie is a pretty big deal around here, so it might not be a bad thing to be pro… um.. working for her". Pro what? It sure seemed like Shane was about to say something else than working.

"Not that you should just jump into it or just trust Amelie without asking questions. But like Shane's saying she is a pretty important person here in Morganville" Alyssa seemed deep in thoughts when she continued. "I do think you should ask for some more information before saying yes though. There's some pretty sketchy jobs here".

I couldn't really ignore that logic. I had a lot of things to think about, including whether or not to call my dad to ask him about it all. I mean, I probably should. It's not really fair that I didn't know all this stuff, but how do you ask your dad if he has a shady job on the side? Because no matter what Amelie said, it sure sounded a little shady.

I decided to just leave it for the time being and enjoy hanging out with my friends. Shane was still deliciously close to me, but not as close as he was before. Damn him and damn my hormones for noticing. I pretended to make room for Alyssa to stand right next to me, so I could scoot closer to Shane. Of course as I moved to the side I kind of tripped over my own feet and fell into Shane. I know I said I wanted to get closer to him, but this was really not the way I'd imagined it.

"Woah, are you okay?" Shane asked me while he put his arm around my waist to steady me.

"Yeah, it's just been a long day" I couldn't help but giggle and that made me feel slightly lame. Shane kept his arm around my waist.

_**Shane POV**_

After Claire stumbled into me and I caught her, I kept my arm around her waist. I know I probably shouldn't, but it just felt too damn good to remove it. What the fuck is going on with me I don't know, I never took myself for the kind of guy who acts and thinks like a pussy. But guess that's exactly what I am since I'm feeling fucking high just from having my arm around Claire.

My mind was still reeling from the information about Amalie. I honestly didn't know what to make of it. What could Amelie want with Claire? It just made no sense to me. I had to talk to Michael about this. Maybe we could go talk to Sam about what was going on. Sam's one of the good guys, even if he is a vampire – and the fact that he's Michaels grandfather might actually work out to our advantage. Close or not, they're family.

Talking about Michael, where the fuck was that douchebag? As far as I could gather Eve had texted all of us, with me having called him several times it was really starting to get to me that the fucker hadn't gotten back to any of us. If it wasn't for the fact that we lived in fucking Morganville, capital of freaky disappearances, I would've said that the fucker better be lying in a ditch somewhere. But seeing as we did live in Freakville I was starting to worry that something had happened to him. If he showed up unharmed, I was going to fucking kick his ass!

"Are you alright?" Claire said, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah, just wondering where Michael is. He should've been here by now" I might have looked slightly aggravated.

"Oh, was he supposed to meet you guys here?" Claire questioned me.

"Um, kinda". I have no idea what my face looked like, I hadn't really expected her to start asking me questions.

"Excuse me, but how can he be supposed to meet you here 'kinda'? When were you supposed to meet?" Claire quizzed me.

"Well, it was more an understanding of meeting up here, that's all."

"So how exactly can Michael be running late if you haven't agreed on a time? And why is it such a big deal?" Dammit, my girl is nothing if not observant. I didn't really fucking think when I said we'd agreed to come. How the fuck did I get out of this one, without letting Claire know that Eve had called in the cavalry?

Luckily for me Alyssa decided to help me out. I love my sis, sure she can be fucking annoying and irritate the hell out of me, but she's always there to bail me out when I fuck shit up.

"I think my brother dear is just anxious to hear how Michael's meeting went" Alyssa said grinning at me. Fuck that shit. I take back the 'I love my sis' part, she's just plain annoying.

"Oh right, he had that meeting about a gig somewhere, didn't he?" Claire asked looking at me to answer her question. Fuck it if I knew. Once again my sister bailed me out.

"Yeah. It'll be so awesome if he gets the gig. I'm not too sure what's it about though, he didn't say too much about it."

Lo and behold who the fuck entered the door just then. None other than the elusive Michael Fucking Glass. If looks could kill, he'd be on the fucking floor as soon as he entered.

"MICHAEL" Claire motherfucking squeeled and left my side to give him a hug. I felt a tug at my heart when Claire was no longer beside me. Seriously, what the fuck. I sound so fucking emo.

"We were just talking about you, apparently Shane thought you would show up earlier" Fuck. Michael you better not sell me out now, or we'll have some serious issues to work out…. I tried to convey my thoughts through my glare at Michael, but knew it was pretty impossible since Michael isn't a mindreader.

Michael sent Alyssa and I a questioning glance, before responding.

"It must've slipped my mind, sorry dude" Well, well.. Seems like I didn't have to knock the shit out of my best friend today.

"It's okay man. Did you get the gig?"

"I did. You're looking at the guy who'll be playing an acoustic show at Café every Friday for the next month"

Café was a café/ restaurant in town where they often had someone to play for the people eating there – and they'd opted for the simple name Café.. If you asked me it was kinda ridiculous , naming a café "Café" but what the fuck do I know. It wasn't really a place we'd hang out, since the place ridiculously overpriced everything.

"Congrats man, seems like we might have to suck it up and go there for once then"

"Thanks. It's going to be good. Of course I'll have to play a ton of boring covers, but they did say I could play a few original songs too – and it's actually a paying gig"

Claire and Alyssa both gave Michael a hug and gave him their congratulations too.

"This is cause for celebration, come on Claire let's go buy some cupcakes and tell Eve" Alyssa said while simultaneous sending me a glance and dragging Claire along. I love that my sis knew that I wanted to have a word in private with Michael.

Not sooner than Alyssa and Claire are far enough gone to not overhear what I say, I lay into Michael.

"WHAT THE FUCK DUDE? Where have you been? Why haven't you answered your phone?"

Michael furrowed his brows, gave me an apologetic smile and grabbed his phone from his pocket. It took him a minute to answer, as he seemed to check his texts and lost calls. His smile quickly disappearing from his face.

"I'm sorry. I turned the sound off my phone for the meeting and forgot to check it afterwards. What happened? Is everything alright? She seems okay now?"

I told him everything that had happened that afternoon, but before we could talk more about it the girls came back.

Claire went up to Michael and gave him another hug, while saying

"We got the cupcakes to go. I say we go home, cook a nice meal and then celebrate when Eve comes home"

_Why the fuck does that douche get all the hugs?_


End file.
